Rongai man on death row freed after 9 years

NAIROBI: The High Court has freed a man who has been on death row for nine years. Paul Ngugi had been sentenced to death in 2006 for allegedly violently stealing a watch and Sh350 from an Administration Police officer in 2002.

However, Justices Luka Kimaru and Ngenye Macharia quashed his conviction after finding that the testimony that was used to convict him in the lower court was not reliable.

They gave Ngugi back his freedom, noting that the testimonies and the investigations conducted by the police created doubt if he was one of the assailants who stole from Paul Omenyi in 2002.

"We have no doubt that a robbery against prosecution witness one (Omenyi) was committed as he lost his personal belongings in the process. He was also robbed by a gang of more than one person and was injured in the process. But as noted in the foregoing, we are not convinced that the evidence on record links the appellant to the offence. We shall give him a benefit of doubt," the ruling by the two judges read.

On the night of September 21, 2002, Sergeant Omenyi was ambushed by a gang of four people on his way home in Rongai. The men, according to testimony, had covered their faces and were speaking in Kikuyu. They ordered him to sit down and took his watch worth Sh600, and Sh350 cash.

The assailants later took Omenyi to a bush and tied him using shoe laces together with another man who had also been robbed. But Omenyi managed to untie himself and reported to the police the following day. He said he had recognised Ngugi, his neighbour, during the incident.

He told the court that the thugs who claimed to be police officers had toy pistols. However, in the magistrate's court, the prosecution told the court that the assailants were armed with dangerous weapons, which included pistols and swords.