The High Court in Mombasa has sentenced to death a police officer who shot and killed three people while he was drunk 16 years ago.
Justice Dorah Chepkwony on Thursday found Police Constable Harrison Langat guilty of using his G3 rifle to shoot dead Doreen Wawira, Alice Katonye and Police Constable Jacob Nderi.
Langat was from a drinking spree when he stormed Mtwapa Police Station where he worked, and shot the three dead. Eight spent cartridges were recovered at the scene.
Judge Chepkwony said she had no doubt that Langat had committed the murders because all the evidence placed him at the scene of crime.
“Three people died in the hands of a police officer who was supposed to protect them yet there was no special circumstances that forced him to use his weapon since the victims were not armed and had not committed any crimes,” she said.
Langat was charged that on the night of March 16, 2003, he killed his colleague and two women who had gone to the station to file a report.
State counsel Erick Masila applied to have the officer subjected to a maximum sentence as deterrence to rampant shootings and killings by police officers.
Masila said the court should take judicial notice of the fact that some officers use their guns to end the lives of innocent Kenyans.
