On the night of January 25, 2011 Japheth Wanjala was sound asleep in his house in Esumeiya, Kakamega county when he was suddenly woken up by a bang on the door.

He got out of bed to see what was happening, and found assailants had switched off the lights and gained entry into his home.

They cut his right shoulder using a panga as they demanded money from him.

They tied his hands, ordered him to lie on his stomach and pushed him under the sofa. They then proceeded to rob him of Sh29,000, a mobile phone and household goods worth Sh20,000.

His neighbour Rachel (not her real name) also heard a bang on her door and saw Emmanuel Shisibo enter her house carrying a torch and in the company of a gang of thieves armed with crude weapons.

Rachel would later testify that Shisibo was the first to rape her before the other gang members did the same.

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They then forced her to walk to her neighbour’s house, known as Joel, where they asked her to call out to him.

Hearing Rachel calling for help, Joel opened the door and came face to face with the gang and when he recognised Shisibo, he was struck on the face with a panga.

The gang robbed Joel of Sh26,000, a mobile phone and household items, as he and his wife co-operated with the robbers to avoid being hurt.

After the ordeal, Shisibo was arrested and arraigned in court where he pleaded not guilty to the offence of gang rape and robbery with violence.

He claimed he was home on the night of the robbery and said the complainants had mistaken him for someone else.

However, during trial, Rachel and Joel positively identified Shisibo because they had seen him around the neighbourhood several times.

The trial court found Shisibo guilty of the crimes and sentenced him to death for both charges.

Shisibo was not satisfied with the court’s decision and moved to the High Court to seek redress. His appeal was, however, thrown out and he went to the Court of Appeal in Kisumu.

Here, Justices David Maraga, Daniel Musinga and Agnes Murgor also dismissed his appeal and upheld the lower court’s ruling.

According to their judgment, delivered on October 11, 2016 the two witnesses had positively identified Shisibo as one of the people who had attacked them that night.