Siaya High Court has sentenced two men to life imprisonment after they were found guilty of killing a boda boda operator by running over him several times by their vehicle.
The two convicts - Benjamin Odhiambo and Vincent Owuor - are said to have committed the crime on November 30, 2018 after the deceased, Ronald Otieno disagreed with his girlfriend.
On the day of the incident, Ronald is said to have gone with his girlfriend, Mercy Akinyi, to a nightclub in Bungasi trading centre in Siaya County where a disagreement ensued between them over an unknown issue.
Also Read:
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said that following the disagreement, Akinyi stormed out of the pub and boarded a Toyota Hilux that was parked outside.
"All was going on well between Ronald and Akinyi until at around midnight when the deceased picked a quarrel with his girlfriend over an unknown issue. This prompted Akinyi to walk out of the bar in a huff and board a Toyota Hilux pick-up truck that had been parked outside," the DCI said.
Minutes after Akinyi boarded the vehicle it sped off leaving Ronald in a moment of disarray. The deceased later called his brother to accompany him on his motorbike while he chased after his girlfriend who was headed towards Sigomere trading centre.
They caught up with the vehicle a few meters before it reached Sigomere where they sped past it and tried to wave at the driver to stop the vehicle so that his girlfriend could alight the vehicle and mend their differences.
The driver of the vehicle was not willing to stop as requested by the deceased and instead opted to hit his motorbike from the rear.
"The driver instead accelerated and hit the motorbike from the back, tossing the pillion passenger, the deceased brother to a nearby ditch and the deceased on the road," the DCI narrated.
Adding: "They noted that the deceased had fallen off the tarmac, the driver and the co-accused stopped the vehicle and alighted. One of them went and confirmed if the deceased brother who had fallen in the ditch had died while the deceased lied on the road still alive. The driver then positioned Ronald along the track of the vehicle and instructed his accomplice to reverse, running over the deceased several times killing the deceased on the spot."
As all this was going on, the deceased brother who was at the ditch was not dead. He had faked his death to escape the wrath of the cold-blooded killers.
The deceased brother who later called the police after the incident revealed that he heard the accused run Ronald's body several times with their track before they fled.
The police officers across the were later alerted of the incident and were asked to help capture the accused persons as well as identify the vehicle that was used in the gruesome murder.
"The vehicle was later flagged down as it approached Nairobi and the two suspects arrested. At the time, it had already been thoroughly cleaned as the suspects sought to erase traces of the incident. The police, however, impounded the vehicle and became a key exhibit in unravelling the murder mystery," detectives said.
"Detectives from the Headquarters Homicide branch and Scenes of Crime subjected the vehicle to clinical forensic analysis and gathered several samples of examination which later confirmed that the vehicle was used to overrun the body of the deceased severally. Traces of the deceased's brain and DNA were found on the body," they added.
An autopsy conducted on the deceased body at Siaya County Referral Hospital also revealed that the deceased died of an injury. The deceased also exhibited broken limbs, ribs, and legs.
Though the accused denied the charges, Justice R.E. Aburile noted that the court was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the two were guilty.
