Siblings to hang for killing step-brother over land

After a long, busy day at work, Msanzu Baya packed his tools and headed to his Malindi home.

It was the evening of August 2, 2012 and darkness was beginning to set in. As he walked, his mind went to the bitter land dispute involving his cousins which had created a palpable tension.

He was so pensively engrossed in his thoughts that he almost failed to notice his two cousins Gunga and John Baya, who was cruelly murdered shortly thereafter, conversing a few metres ahead of him.

Msanzu quickened his pace and joined the duo after which the three walked together for some distance before they parted ways.

"A few minutes later, I heard a distressed voice crying out that he was being killed. It sounded like that of my cousin John. I rushed towards the direction of the voice but the cries stopped suddenly and I regrettably turned back and went home," Msanzu later testified at the High Court in Malindi.

Early the next morning, Gunga's brother, Said Baya, asked Msanzu whether John had arrived home the previous night.

Said claimed that John was being sought by certain people from Malindi on allegations that he had robbed someone of a motorcycle and in the process killed the owner. Said dismissed Msanzu's account of hearing screams the previous night saying they were drunkards.

Two days later, Msanzu spoke to Gunga about John's unexplained absence but the latter said that the deceased had already travelled to Malindi.

"My suspicion prompted me to report the matter to the area chief and later to the police who advised me to organise a search party," Msanzu told the court. When he approached Gunga and Said for help, the two, who are headed to the gallows after they lost an appeal this month, flatly refused to join the search and even denied the team access to the family land.

Police, however, intervened and the search continued on August 29 leading to the discovery of a decomposing body stuffed in a gunny bag and buried in a bush on the family land.

Chengo Katana, an uncle to the deceased, identified the body from the clothes on the remains and the head.

"Sometime in June 2012, Said had complained to me that the deceased had ejected his mother and wife from the family home. On proposing a meeting to resolve the matter, he responded: 'Mimi nikija hapo hakuna story nikumalizana'," testified Katana.

A post mortem conducted on the body could not establish the cause of death due to the extensive decomposition.

The duo, in their defence vehemently denied committing the offence and maintained their innocence at the Court of Appeal sitting in Malindi.

They both acknowledged having been with the deceased shortly before his demise but insisted that they parted with him when he was alive and well.

While dismissing the appeal, justices Martha Koome, Hannah Okwengu and George Kariuki, found that circumstantial evidence revealed that the appellants had the motive to kill or harm the deceased to stop him from selling his portion of their father's land.