KENYA: FIVE MEN SENT TO GALLOWS FOR VIOLENT ROBBERY

July 11, 2013: In Kenya, a Narok court sentenced five people to death after they were convicted of involvement in a series of robbery with violence. Mohammed Dima, James Ngechu, John Ngechu, Joseph Mwangi and Joseph Muchonga had been charged with nine counts of violent carjacking along the Narok-Mai Mahiu between 2011 and last year.
The five who were arrested by the area Criminal Investigation Department officers who had laid an ambush on them at Suswa area along the highway. According to the prosecution that was led by Chief Inspector Ali Kingi, the group jointly committed the offences while armed with guns and other dangerous weapons.
The prosecution told the court that apart from being armed, the accused that masqueraded as traffic police officers committed the crimes while in authentic police uniforms, adding whenever their victims were stopped, they always obliged in the belief that they were police officers.
Mr Kingi told the court that in the series of incidents in which a vehicle belonging to the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency was also stolen, the accused who were unrepresented robbed their victims of money, motor parts and personal belongings. Sentencing them, the Narok Senior Resident Magistrate Temba Sitati said the five who had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges were all positively identified by their victims. (Sources: standardmedia.co.ke, 12/07/2013)