By Wahome Thuku

Karamani and her husband lived with their children in a village in Meru District where she operated a retail shop. Her husband was also a businessman in the area.

One day in October 1999, a gang or armed robbers struck her house and shop. Her husband was away leaving Karamani alone with the children. The robbers stole household goods and other valuables but did not harm anyone.

Neither Karamani nor her children identified or recognised any of the robbers. The incidennt was reported at the local police station.

The family later employed a watchman called Kimunai. But that did not deter the criminals.

A week after the robbery, gangsters struck again. This time Karamani was in the house with her husband and children. The watchman was outside the shop. It was never explained how the gangsters accessed the home and subdued the watchman. But no one in the house managed to recognise or identify any of them. They stole goods from the shop without harming anyone in the family. Again the incident was reported at the same police station.

Two days after the second robbery, Karamani, her husband and watchman were summoned to the police station. They were asked to sit in an office and wait.

They were then informed that some suspects had been arrested and they would be required to identify any of them.

A few minutes later, police officers walked into the office escorting four men, Mwirigi, Mukira, Muguna and Michera who were handcuffed.

The couple and their watchman were told to look at them carefully because they were the people who had robbed them on the two occasions.

Karamani and Kimunai looked at them for a couple of minutes before they were escorted back to the cells.

Later the woman and the watchman were taken through four identification parades where other suspects were included and asked to identify the people who had raided their home. They picked each of the suspects from each parade.

Mwirigi, Mukira, Muguna and Michera were arraigned before a magistrate court in Meru charged with two counts of robbery with violence.

During the hearing, Karamani and Kimunai narrated the events clearly as they happened on the two nights and at the police station. The woman said when the suspects were taken to her in the office she took time to look at them. She said she would never forget them for the rest of her life, as they were very bad people.

The two witnesses told the court they managed to pick out the four suspects from the parades because police had introduced them in the office as the people who attacked their home on the two occasions.

They admitted they had never seen them before but they again identified the men in court.

Karamani’s husband was never called to testify and no stolen items were produced in court.

The magistrate believed the evidence and convicted all the four men on both counts of violent robbery. He sentenced them to death.

They appealed to the High Court and the case went before two judges sitting in Nyeri.

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