Terrorised family gets justice after five years

They were dressed in colourful police uniforms and had the demeanour of professional cops, ranging from their bouncing walking style to commanding voices.

It was 7 pm on April 27, 2005 as the ‘cops’ walked around Kisii Town – and locals had little to worry about since the men in colourful police uniforms looked like ordinary cops on patrol.

Florence Akinyi was serving her family supper when the four ‘cops’ bounced in brandishing a gun and ordered everybody to lie down.

Akinyi would probably have immediately obliged, but the sight of one of the ‘cops’ – a boda boda operator she knew from the neighbourhood caused her to freeze.

They wanted money and threatened to kill anyone who stood in their way, including Akinyi and her children who were having supper at the time.

They grabbed her handbag which had Sh5,000 and other personal effects, before marching her upstairs to the bedroom where her husband had locked himself in after hearing the commotion downstairs.

The following morning, Akinyi’s family was counting losses and nursing the aches of the night of terror when police phoned in with good news.

It emerged that one of the suspects, the boda boda chap, had left Akinyi’s handbag inside a nearby lodging where he went to spend the night after the robbery.

The suspect, identified as Daniel Namai, was subsequently charged with robbery with violence before a Kisii Magistrate's Court.

The court heard that Namai handed Akinyi’s handbag to a mistress with whom he spent the night at the lodging shortly after the robbery, but she left the bag in the room.

A death sentence was delivered against the suspect, by Ezra Awino, a principal magistrate, and the sentence was later upheld by the Kisii High Court on February 2, 2010.

Namai appealed the verdict at the Court of Appeal in Kisumu, but appellate judges Onyango Otieno, Festus Azangalala and Sankale Ole Kantai upheld the death sentence ruling. “We are satisfied that the two courts below properly carried out their duties in law,” ruled the judges. Namai is thus cooling his heels behind bars.