Kisii man handed 20-year jail term for stealing fundraising money meant for school fees

By , K24 Digital
On Fri, 4 Jun, 2021 13:31 | 2 mins read
NTSA employee sentenced for bribery
Court Gavel. PHOTO/Internet

A high court in Kisii has upheld the conviction and sentence of a man who had been jailed for 20 years having been found guilty of robbing Harambee money.

Paul Marwa Nchama was sentenced by a Kilgoris Principal Magistrate courts on August 21, 2019.

Appearing before Principal Magistrate D.K. Matutu, Marwa was charged for robbing neighbour Johannes Mukono ksh90,000 plus two mobile phones worth ksh6,200.

The trial court heard that Marwa in the company of another was armed with pangas and bottles when they committed the offense on 8th September 2018 at a Village in Transmara Location in Narok County.

Mukono testified that he was in the company of his wife at around 1 am that night when Marwa with another person entered into their house through an unclosed door and demanded to be given the money which they had collected from the proceeds of Harambee.

The stolen amount of money was meant to be for school fees. Marwa then hit Mukono on the head using a panga before throwing bottles at him.

He fell down unconsciously. His wife was silenced when she tried screaming. They then took the money which had been kept in the bag and disappeared.

Mukono was rushed to the hospital and on coming back home he found Marwa’s Identification Card in the bedroom.

The court heard that Marwa was clearly seen that night. He was positively identified having lived in the same neighbourhood for two years.

Mukono’s wife during cross-examination refuted Marwa’s claims that he had been fixed for having a disagreement with her husband over alcohol and insisted that he dropped his ID while he was in a hurry to escape - a statement which she failed to record with police.

Marwa was later arrested by Area Chief. In his defence, he stated that he was arrested by the chief, assaulted, and accused of committing robbery. Adding, “Mukono wanted to fix me because I had refused to work for him. For my ID, I had given it out to police to show that I was a Kenyan and was not recovered from the crime scene.”

The lower court summarized the evidence and found him guilty and sentenced him to twenty years. Five months later, he appealed the case.

The appeal case was referred to Kisii High court before Judge R.E. Ougo and was first opposed because the evidence adduced in the trial court was sufficient to sustain a conviction.

The appeal court noted that discrepancies on time and amount stolen were just a typographical error that did not prejudice him. Further, he was positively identified in presence of good lighting and has been a neighbour for two years.

The high court further noted that the couple’s evidence was consistently corroborated with those of medical report and hence elements of robbery proven adequately.

“I uphold the trial court’s findings. Consequently, I uphold his conviction and sentence of twenty years which shall run from 10th September 2018 the time when he was arraigned,” reads the judgment.

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