Two men sentenced to death for shooting DCJ Mwilu’s guard

A Kibera magistrate has sentenced two men to death for shooting Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu's guard.

Prosecutor Nancy Kerubo successfully prosecuted the case against them and urged the court for a tough sentence.

Kibera senior principal magistrate Esther Boke said the two accused persons were cruel, barbaric and not remorseful.

“The offence was committed brutally, the accused person shot the complainants with a firearm and they were not firearm holders,” Boke said.

“The two are dangerous people who need to be kept away from society and by doing so we will protect the community.” 

She said that the accused persons only urged the court to have leniency on them.

James Wachira Kibe and Eric Njuguna Kamau had been two weeks ago convicted of the offence while Everyncy Khalifywa Shivachi alias Evans Khalif Shivachi was acquitted by Boke.

The two had been accused of shooting the guard in 2017, leaving him with serious injuries.

Shivachi was acquitted after police failed to convince the court that he was the owner of the motorcycle spotted at the scene of crime.

The magistrate ruled that the police failed to put him at the scene of the crime.

Kibe and Kamau had been accused of violently robbing police constable Titus Musyoka of a pistol and a magazine loaded with fifteen rounds of ammunition all valued at Sh200,000 while armed with a pistol.

The offence was committed on October 24, 2017, along Ngong Road, the charge sheet said.

During the attack, the court heard that one of the accused persons shot and wounded the complainant.

They all denied the charges.

Constable Musyoka while testifying in court said that the incident happened moments after he had left the Supreme Court premises in a blue Prado at around 4 pm.

He had just picked up a child from school and dropped him home.

He said after dropping the child off, he proceeded to the Coptic Hospital area to buy some plants from a flower garden.

"I arrived at the garden and found the owner and his two employees, but he said the plants I wanted to purchase (bottom brass and others) were few. He said they were present at the next garden, near Impala Club,” he said.

Musyoka was accompanied by the owner of the flower garden and one of his employees.

He said he parked the car facing the gate and then started loading the plants.

"I asked them how many they had loaded before hearing a gunshot. I heard the second gunshot and found I had been hit and was bleeding in the left jaw and the left shoulder," he said.

He then lay down and pretended to be dead.

"A man came and picked my gun and fled on a motorcycle," Musyoka said.

"I told the garden owner that I had been shot in the shoulder. I requested him to take me to the hospital.”

Musyoka said the employee who accompanied him said he was loading tree seedlings when he heard a gunshot.

"There was a young man who came and picked his pistol," he said.

The court noted in its judgement that  Kibe and Kamau were culpable of the offence since the prosecution tendered overwhelming evidence confirming their presence at the scene of crime and the fact that the stolen pistol was recovered from them during another robbery incident in Thika.

In his mitigation, the first accused person urged the court to allow him to go home to make a family.

"Allow me to go home and make a family, I was arrested before I married," he said.