A greedy robbery

By Wahome Thuku

One evening in February 2001, Alfred was cycling along Ngong Road in Nairobi, heading home in Riruta Satellite.

Near Adams Arcade shopping centre, a man sprung out from nowhere armed with a knife and pushed him off the road. Alfred fell into a ditch.

The man, who was later identified as Karanja, was immediately joined by two other attackers.

STREET JUSTICE: A man is beaten for allegedly stealing in the city. A suspect was charged with robbery with violence but denied claiming he sustained injuries in a fight over a woman. Photo: File/Standard

The two men took cash, shoes and a watch from Alfred. One of them rode away on the bicycle and the other followed.

But due to Karanja’s greed for money, he was left behind demanding for more money from Alfred.

When Alfred told him that he did not have more money, Karanja stabbed him several times on the chest, arm and ear.

Motorists’ intervention

Alfred screamed for dear life. Karanja left him and started walking towards Kibera slums. Alfred got out of the ditch and screamed louder prompting Karanja to return and attack him again.

Alfred tried to run away but being too weak he fell down. Karanja caught up with him and began strangling him.

Motorists who were passing by hooted and flashed their headlights. Several of them stopped, got hold of Karanja and beat him senseless.

One of his teeth broke. As he lay on the roadside bleeding and unconscious, Alfred managed to get to a telephone booth and called the police. They arrived in minutes but found Karanja had vanished.

The attack had taken about one hour. Alfred was treated at a nearby hospital and recorded a statement.

Five days later as Alfred was riding in a bus he spotted the man standing at a bus stage in Kawangware. Alfred alighted and moved closer to him.

Second beating

The man’s lips were heavily swollen and he had fresh bruises on the face. He wore the same white jacket he had on the material night.

Alfred asked him how he had sustained the injuries and he told him he had been involved in an accident at Adams Arcade. When the robbery incident was mentioned to him, he ran away.

Alfred managed to catch him and raised alarm. For the second time, members of the pubic descended on Karanja, beating him almost to death. Police managed to rescue him and took him to Kenyatta National Hospital. He was later charged with robbery with violence.

In his defence, he claimed he had been beaten by his brother following a dispute over a woman and was heading to hospital when Alfred confronted him at the bus stage.

He said 10 drunk men then joined Alfred in meting out mob justice on him. He claimed he did not know anything about the robbery.

Other than Alfred’s word and identification, there was no other evidence to link Karanja to the alleged robbery at Adams Arcade.

Karanja’s bloodstained jacket was not produced in court and there was no evidence to prove that the beating had caused his dental gap and the bruises.

The motorists who beat him up at Adams Arcade and the people who repeated it at Kawangware were not called to testify.

What would be your verdict?

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Court’s ruling is next week.

Last week’s Verdict

The magistrate convicted the four men and sentenced each to 10 years for robbing the bacon factory, 10 years for preparing to rob a home in Parklands, one year for carrying an illegal gun and one year for carrying illegal ammunition.

They were also to receive six strokes of the cane and be under five-year police supervision upon release.

On appeal, the High Court upheld conviction against Maina on all the counts but reduced his sentence for robbery from 10 to six years. The conviction against the other three was quashed except for preparing to rob the home in Parklands.

The Court of Appeal held that the pistol carried by Maina could not link him to the factory robbery committed two months before. His conviction for the robbery was quashed.

There was also no conclusive evidence that the men who were arrested walking on a public road actually intended to rob the house even if they were armed.

The Court of Appeal judges were of the opinion that police should have waited for the a few seconds for the suspects to make the slightest attempt to enter the home.

Their conviction for preparing to commit a felony was also quashed.

The only standing conviction was against Maina for carrying an illegal pistol and ammunition in a briefcase. This was upheld. But he had already served the one-year sentence.

In November 1986, Maina, Mwangi, Muchemi and Muchoki walked out of jail free men.