Two young men who were arraigned before a court over charges of killing a taxi driver have been found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
The two, Bashir Ibrahim and Ibrahim Abdullahi were facing robbery with violence charges and killing Richard Simiren Kumomoru.
Standard reports that the two committed the offence while they were high school students in the case where they were being charged with committing the offence jointly with others after hiring a taxi pretending to be customers.
Ibrahim who was a student at Fanaka while Abdullahi, a student at Nakate secondary school were accused that together with others not before the court, they killed Kumomoru on the night of March 14 and 15, 2016 at Total Area in Narok.
On the material date, the court further heard that the accused persons also robbed Kumomoru of his Samsung galaxy mobile phone valued at Sh15,000 and his vehicle valued at Sh1.2 million property of Yiapan Edgar Karsis.
The family had reported the matter at Narok Police Station when Kumomoru failed to come home and the police managed to track the car at Mwariki area in Nakuru along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway and five suspects were arrested.
Their accomplice, a 17-year-old boy admitted to the charges before a court in June 2016 and was sentenced to serve three years in a correctional institution but two other suspects were released due to lack of sufficient evidence.
The two accused persons pleaded for leniency and through their lawyer told Chief Magistrate Wilbroda Juma that they regretted the actions and wanted to reform.
The prosecution asked the court for a stiff penalty which will serve as a lesson to others but the accused said they were students while committing the offence.
Magistrate Juma, however, sentenced the two accused to death saying the prosecution had proven its case.
“I agree with the prosecution that justice had to be served for the family that lost a loved one in such an inhuman manner,” said the magistrate in her ruling quoted by Standard.
The accused persons were however given 14 days to appeal.