NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 10 — Two robbery with violence suspects who mugged a man at gunpoint two years ago in Nairobi’s Kilimani area have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The convicts, riding on a motorcycle when the crime occurred, were caught on camera accosting their victim along Rose Avenue as he headed to work.
“One of them later identified as Humphrey Minyatta, (first accused) placed a knife on his throat as his accomplice Timothy Muzami (second accused) pointed a firearm on his forehead and snatched a bag that he was carrying,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) while welcoming the sentence.
According to the DCI, on the day of the attack, the first accused ransacked Momanyi’s pockets and took his mobile phone, before they both jumped on the waiting motorbike leaving the victim heavily shaken.
Immediately after receiving the report, detectives based at DCI Kilimani swung into action on a manhunt for the thugs, as they appealed on Kenyans with information regarding the suspects to volunteer it to the agency.
“The seasoned sleuths led by the then Kilimani crime buster Fatuma Hadi, mounted a stealth intelligence-led operation, that took them to the densely populated areas of Gatina, Kanungaka and Kawangware where they laid an ambush for the suspects for three days and later widened their dragnet to Pangani where the two suspects were arrested after a week,” the DCI stated.
Detectives said the first accused took their agents to his house where they discovered the knife that the suspect had brandished and the yellow brown jacket and pair of shoes that he wore as captured in the CCTV footage on the day of the attack.
An identification parade was later conducted, and the victim positively identified the two as the thugs who had attacked him.
A third suspect who was also arrested led the detectives to the recovery of victim’s two phones and a laptop, though he could not be directly linked to the two suspects.
“Detectives based at the Forensic Imaging and Acoustics unit retrieved the CCTV footage and after subjecting it to forensic analysis, confirmed that it was authentic and had not been tampered with. With that conclusion, the thugs’ fate was sealed,” the agency stated.
In her judgment, Senior Resident Magistrate Zainabu Abdul noted that although the firearm used by second accused had not been recovered, it is still out there being used to commit similar atrocities on innocent Kenyans.
She added that despite the accused persons being first time offenders, they were not remorseful for their actions.
Zainabu noted that such cases where criminals use boda boda’s as getaway means from crime scenes were on the rise, hence the need to deter such acts by pronouncing the life sentence for the duo.
“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations thanks Hon Zainabu, for handing down the sentence to the two miscreants, in a case that has taken a short time to conclude,” the agency said.
