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KENYA: MAN WHO VIOLENTLY STOLE PHONES, CASH SENTENCED TO DEATH
January 25, 2022: A man accused of using excessive force to steal mobile phones and some cash from two city businessmen has been sentenced to death, Nairobi News reported on 21 January 2022.
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 30 December 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.
“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.
The convict is now set to serve life imprisonment given that the death penalty is no longer implemented in Kenya since 1987. (Sources: Nairobi News, 21/01/2022; The Star, 24/01/2022)
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