• The accused person was convicted by Kibera senior principal magistrate Phillip Mutua.
• Mutua ruled that the offence of robbery was proved against him hence the need for a tough sentence
Image: CLAUSE MASIKA
A man accused of using excessive force to steal mobile phones and some cash from two city businessmen has been sentenced to death.
Michael Odhiambo was convicted by Kibera senior principal magistrate Phillip Mutua after the prosecution proved the case against him.
Violet Ombati had urged the court to grant him a harsh penalty as per the law as the offence was serious.
The charge sheet present in court says the accused person had robbed Peter Kenyatta of Sh5000 and a mobile phone worth Sh14,000 on December 30, 2015, and also robbed John Karani and Peter Gichuhi of different amounts of money and mobile phones on the same date and time.
Ombati called several witnesses who testified in the case including both the victims who experienced the barbaric act from the accused person.
The accused person denied the wrongdoing and pleaded with the court to be lenient with him.
“I am a family man with dependents and I am also remorseful, I ask the court to have mercy on me,” he told the court.
The magistrate said the only way to help him out was to hand him the death penalty as the offence was serious.
“The mitigation is considered but in this case, the offence of robbery with violence has been proved and the law provides for only one penalty – a death sentence for the offence,” the magistrate said.
The magistrate stated that the offence of robbery was proved without any reasonable doubt.
Mutua said that the prosecution evidence was enough to convict the accused person and dismissed his defence argument.
“I, therefore, sentence the accused person to a death sentence and I give him 14 days to appeal if he wishes to do so,” said Mutua.
According to the prosecution witness, the accused person blocked the victim’s car and lied they had knocked down a bodaboda rider in a hit and run accident before robbing them of their items.
He committed the offence alongside another person who was charged before the same court but went missing after he was released on bond.
The court heard that the accused person was working closely with Stanley Amos Misiko, the co-accused person, who is still at large
The court heard that the accused person asked for a lift from the victims to escape being lynched.
They were arrested after a report was made to the police.
The convict is now set to serve life imprisonment given that the death penalty is no longer implemented in Kenya since 1987.
Edited by B. Marita