How two sheets, a shirt and pair of trousers led man to his death

Nairobi; Kenya: When a panga-wielding mugger chucked into a coffee bush at Kihiu Mwiri in Thika on April 28, 2005 waylaying passersby, his future looked ‘bright’.

With the sharp panga — glistening menacingly in the moonlight  — the thug, Simon Kang’ethe, was enthusiastic he would smile all the way back home later that night.

The night went well for Kang’ethe because by 7.30pm he was the proud owner of three pieces of stolen underwear.

Also in his possession were two bed sheets, a shirt, a pair of trousers and shoes all tucked into a bag he had grabbed from a primary school pupil, who was walking home.

But little did Kang’ethe know that the loot valued at Sh2,950 would hand him a death sentence, a verdict which was upheld by a Nairobi Court in July this year.

Details of Kang’ethe’s gory misadventure with the panga emerged during the hearing of his robbery with violence trial at the Thika Principal Magistrate Court.

The traumatised pupil from whom he stole the bag narrated to the court that he had just being dropped by a vehicle in Kihiu Mwiri, when out of the blues a panga-wielding thug struck.

“He hit me on my left shoulder then dragged me into the coffee bushes, where he demanded for money,” the pupil told the court. “I told him I was just from school and had no money, and he grabbed my bag then ordered me to walk away without looking back.”

Kang’ethe later left the bag in the custody of yet another primary school pupil, a cousin of his whom he gave one of the bed sheets. It was the bag and bed sheet that later gave him away to the police.

The sheet was new and bore the name of the hapless pupil from whom it had been stolen, thus when  Kang’ethe’s cousin was confronted by his parents about his new sheet he said that Kang’ethe had given it to him. Ultimately, Kang’ethe was arrested and charged in court for the offence of robbery with violence – five witnesses testified.

At the close of the trial, Principal Magistrate L W Gicheha, sentenced the suspect to death.

This marked the official commencement of Kang’ethe’s fight to prove his innocence, which saw him move to the Nairobi High Court — where justices Jackton Ojwang and George Dulu upheld the death sentence two years later.

Unbowed, Kang’ethe moved to the Court of Appeal in Nairobi, where he argued that the prosecution evidence leading to his conviction had gaps that warranted his acquittal.

He argued that the said robbery incident happened in coffee bushes – where it was literally impossible for the complainant to identify who attacked him, as it was at night.

Kang’ethe further claimed that the intensity of the moonlight during the incident was never interrogated.

But the appellate judges ruled that Kang’ethe had  been properly identified adding: “We find that there is no other reasonable explanation for the possession except that the appellant stole the bed sheets in the course of robbing the complainant. The doctrine of recent possession was clearly applicable and the courts below correctly applied the same.”

Kang’ethe is now cooling his heels in prison awaiting the hangman.