It’s the gallows for man, Wilson Ngao, who robbed boda boda operator

After raising money to buy a motorcycle, an excited Paul Njoroge visited a popular motorcycle dealer in Mombasa and bought his desired model at Sh88,000.

As he happily rode home that day, nothing could have forewarned him that he would lose his newly-acquired business asset to violent robbers in a few days’ time.

The fateful incident, which occurred on July 29, 2009, still rankles him to date.

On that day, Njoroge was at Kaloleni waiting for passengers at around 9:30p.m. when two men approached him and asked to be ferried to Chalani Trading Centre at an agreed fare of Sh200.

Once they got to their destination, the passengers - Hamisi Kenga and Wilson Ngao - implored him to take them a little further but he declined, citing lack of fuel.

Kenga then asked him whether he had change for Sh1,000 to which he replied in the affirmative.

“I was sitting astride the motorcycle counting the money when Kenga suddenly struck me at the back of my head with what I later learned was a hammer,” Njoroge testified months later before the Senior Resident Magistrate's Court in Mariakani.

By then, Ngao had moved about 10 metres away and was watching as Njoroge struggled with Kenga on the ground.

In the process, the unsecured motorcycle fell by the roadside and Ngao picked it, started the engine and sped off into the night.

Kenga overpowered Njoroge and left him on the ground howling in pain as he too took off.

Njoroge’s cries attracted the attention of village elder Mbando Kombe who helped him look for the suspects and the motorcycle.

Administration Police officers on patrol arrived at the scene and joined the search but they could not find the duo.

“Luckily, I knew where Ngao lived but when I offered to take police officers there, they advised me to first report the incident at Kaloleni Police station. I was however, shocked to learn that Ngao had preceded me in reporting the robbery,” Njoroge told the court.

After making the report, Njoroge led the officers to Ngao’s home who in turn led them to Kenga.

On seeing the police, Kenga sprinted away, leaving behind a man who was arrested but later released on police bond, and has to date never been found or arrested.

Ngao was later arraigned in court where he pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery with violence claiming he was alone when he sought Njoroge’s services and that he had already alighted when Kenga attacked Njoroge.

His pleas did not convince the trial judge who sentenced him to death, saying his act of reporting the incident to the police was a ploy to cover up his misdeeds.

Ngao then moved to the High Court but his appeal was dismissed on September 25, 2012 for lack of merit prompting him to move to the Court of Appeal.

His fate was sealed last month after appellate judges Milton Makhandia, William Ouko and Kathurima M’Inoti rejected his argument that the two lower courts did not evaluate the evidence properly.