Driver found guilty of killing three sentenced to 4 years

A businessman found guilty of killing three people in a road accident more than 10 years ago has been jailed for four years.

Kibera senior principal magistrate Derrick Kuto also cancelled the licence for two years.

"The accused person is hereby jailed for four years and his licence suspended for two years. I wish to thank all previous magistrates, prosecutors, victims and police officers," Kuto said.

"I have noted the near perfect submission of this case, the offence of causing death by careless driving is not committed for gain or last to emulate criminals, " Kuto said.

Kuto said that the deaths resulted in the suffering of the families.

The sentencing comes after David Gichuki, the accused person was last week convicted of three counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

The families of the victim welcomed the court decision last week and said that they were on the verge of getting the long-awaited justice.

The offence of driving the vehicle under the influence of alcohol was however dropped after the court found that the prosecution failed to prove the case.

Before that, the case took long since it was affected by the transfer of magistrates and prosecutors.

While responding to the verdict the victims said that the verdict was a relief to them having waited for years for the case to come to an end.

During the mitigation Lawyer Danstan Omari told the court that the offence was not related to murder and urged the court to have leniency on the accused persons.

Defence lawyers will also be appealing the sentence

The victim's lawyer urged the court to grant a harsh penalty to the accused person to deter other drivers from being reckless on the road

David Gichuki who was driving his car, a Toyota Land Cruiser, on the wrong side of the road at around 1 am killed activist Gladwell Otieno’s son, Silvano Mandla Otieno, and two others after a head-on collision.