The High Court in Kiambu has released a man who had been sentenced to death for violent robbery.

David Muruga has been on death row, for the past two years, for an offence he never committed.

Mr Muruga was convicted of violently robbing his cousin, Geoffrey Maina, Sh300 in February last year.

Nearly two years later, the High Court finally realised that the man who had been put on death row was not a villain but a hero. The court found that Muruga was actually trying to save his drunk cousin's life after a violent attack by unknown assailants when he was arrested.

Muruga was a victim of circumstances, found guilty for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the case, Muruga's cousin, Maina, testified that on February 8, 2014 he went to a local bar in Gatanga, Murang'a and left for his house around 10pm

He told the court that on his way home, he encountered a person he identified as his cousin and another accomplice who accosted him and robbed him of Sh300. He sustained a cut wound on the head.

Assailant's identity

The court heard that by the time Maina was being taken to hospital, he was unconscious. The matter was reported to the police after he regained consciousness and he identified Muruga as his assailant.

Muruga was then arrested and charged before Thika Chief Magistrates court, Benson Ireri.

When put on defence, Muruga said that on the material day he was on his way home when he came across someone lying on the roadside and realised that it was his cousin.

Muruga then then helped take Maina to hospital before reporting the incident at Thika Police Station, where, to his consternation, he was arrested and charged with robbery with violence.

On January, 28, 2016, the magistrate's court sentenced him to hang. But Muruga appealed his conviction at the High Court in Kiambu.

High Court Judge Lilian Mutende poked holes in Maina's testimony noting that he could not have identified who attacked him because he was drunk at the time.

"Having been drunk it may not be clear if he remembered him as his attacker or as a person who went to the scene soon thereafter," ruled the judge.

Justice Mutende ruled that the magistrate's court failed to consider the doubt which was created by Maina's testimony.

In a ruling read by Justice Joel Ngugi on Monday, Justice Mutende set Muruga free, ruling that he had actually helped save his cousin's life.