Man’s search for quick cash lands him harsh life sentence

By LINAH BENYAWA

A man sentenced to life imprisonment hopes a mistake he made in his youth can now be forgiven.

Swaleh Chai (pictured) was jailed after a desperate shot at crime backfired when police tracked a vehicle used in a robbery to him.

He has been behind bars for 10 years after he was found guilty of attempted robbery with violence in Malindi, Kilifi County. Chai who is serving the sentence at Shimo La Tewa Maximum Prison, blames his misfortune on unemployment.

He has a diploma in Information Communication Technology. “I needed money to cater for my basic needs but that was just but a dream,” says Chai. “No matter how hard I tried to search for a job, I did not get any.” Living in a single-room house in Malindi, his money problems worsened. Chai eventually found himself in the company of friends who were living large.

When he inquired how they were getting all that money, he was introduced to the robbery with violence “business”. His friends had access to fire arms and military uniforms, which they used to rob business premises in Malindi. They lured him into crime, but Chai’s first attempt turned sour and landed him in jail.

He said he used all his Sh3,800 savings to hire the vehicle his friends would use in the robbery. His hope was to get three times this amount back.

“Though I was not among those five men who had gone to rob the shop in Malindi, I was involved in the background since I hired the vehicle which my friends used,” he recalls.

“When police traced the vehicle, they found out it had been hired under my name (using my national identity card). All the details were with the car hire office. I was traced and arrested.”

The crime was as amateurish as the planning: Chai says when the five friends reached the targeted shop, a guard manning it immediately fled to a nearby Administration Police camp in Gongoni area screaming for help. The men went ahead with the robbery thinking the man had merely run away. Officers from the AP camp rushed to the scene. Only one suspect managed to escape. Four were arrested and the car, which had been hired by Chai recovered. That is where trouble started.

“Upon interrogation, my friends disclosed my identity,” he says. “With the help of the car hire firm, police managed to trace me and after a year in court the other four suspects and I were found guilty of a robbery with violence. My friends were sentenced to life imprisonment, while I was ordered to be held under the President’s pleasure.”

Chai is now pursuing a degree in business management at Mt Kenya University under a Government sponsorship programme.