Three escape hangman's noose after court quashes death sentence verdict

NAKURU, KENYA: Three men escaped the hangman's noose after the appellate court  upheld their appeal and quashed the death sentence in a robbery with violence case.

The trio, Titus Mwangi, Peter Kinuthia and Peter Kimani got a reprieve after an appeal challenging their sentence was upheld by the three bench jury sitting in Nakuru.

The appellate justices Alnashir Visram, Martha Koome and James Otieno Odek set them free after establishing that police failed to conduct an identification parade to prove that the three were actually suspects in the robbery.

"This conviction lacks merit and is hereby dismissed," read justice Odek.

The three had been accused of violently robbing Moses Kuria of his Nissan motor vehicle, a mobile phone and Sh1050 all valued at Sh565, 000.

The particulars of the case were that on May 28, 2005 at around 8 p.m., the three men while armed with dangerous weapons such as pistols and metal bars and while masquerading as passengers boarded a matatu belonging to the said Moses Kuria at Kolen stage towards Ngata Bridge in Nakuru County.

Kuria who had testified against the three recounted that after he had collected enough passengers he began driving towards Ngata before he began hearing noise from his passengers.

He added that one of the accused men had brandished a pistol at the passengers and ordered them to keep silent or be shot dead.

Kuria said that when he turned to check on the ensuing commotion a young man who was sitting next to him ordered him to leave the steering wheel at once.

He said when he proved hesitant to surrender the wheel he was hit hard on the head with a metal bar and another boy jumped in and took control of the wheel and began steering the vehicle towards the Nakuru-Kabarnet road.

He said the gang then began driving towards a thicket where they stopped and ordered the passengers out of the vehicle and robbed them at gun point valuables including money and mobile phones.