Paul Odhiambo, night guard turned robber headed to the gallows

One evening, a few days before Christmas in 2010, Maxison Mutua left his workstation at Nation Center and headed to his Lang'ata home.

He had just reached the precincts of his house off Mbagathi road when he saw a woman hurrying from the opposite direction followed closely by a man.

Mutua innocently gave way to the woman but as he did so, someone grabbed him roughly from behind and realising he was under attack, Mutua surrendered his wrist watch and resolved not to resist.

"The assailant then held me tightly by the neck and took me aside before hitting me hard on the right ear with a blunt object," Mutua later testified before a Nairobi court.

Shortly thereafter, the man who had been pursuing the woman, joined in the attack and the duo wrestled Mutua to the ground where they assaulted and repeatedly kicked him breaking his ribs in the process.

"With the help of light from vehicles passing nearby, I recognised one of the attackers as a guard at my place of residence," he said.

Mutua said the guard, identified as Paul Odhiambo, did not stop attacking him even after he called out his name.

Seeing that the attackers were undeterred in their intent to cause him harm, Mutua decided to play dead and this worked. The robbers let him be after emptying his pockets of Sh9,900 and various items worth Sh35,700 including a mobile phone, his shoes, ATM card, and Staff identity card among others.

After ascertaining that his attackers were gone, Mutua testified that he crawled, with great difficulty, to a nearby estate and managed to contact his friend who arrived moments later and took him to Nairobi Hospital where he was admitted for a week.

The following morning, a day guard who was to take over from Odhiambo noted blood stains on the latter's shoes and trousers.

"When I sought to know what had happened, Odhiambo turned hostile and threatened to fight me," Clement Oduori told the court.

Shortly after the matter was reported at Lang'ata Police Station, police visited Mutua in hospital before proceeding to the scene of crime where they recovered a wrist watch, belt and a blood stained stone.

Swabs of blood collected from the crime scene and Odhiambo's attire were forwarded to the Government Chemist whose analysis showed that the bloodstains matched Mutua's.

Odhiambo was promptly arrested and arraigned in court where he claimed to have gotten the blood stains while assisting a pedestrian who had been seriously injured in a tragic road accident.

Principal Magistrate Elijah Obaga did not believe his assertions and sentenced Odhiambo to death.

The accused immediately lodged an appeal at the High Court in Nairobi on grounds that the adduced evidence did not prove the case beyond doubt and that his defence was not considered.

The court concurred with the lower court's findings prompting Odhiambo to move to the Court of Appeal and lodge a similar complaint

His appeal was however, thrown out last month by appellate judges Erastus Githinji, Festus Azangalala, and Jamila Mohammed.