Mombasa Law Courts. Photo/ the-star.co.ke
A Mombasa Court has sentenced two men to death after they were found guilty of robbing a remandee while in a court cell.
The two, Dickson Omondi and Dennis Onyango were facing charges of robbing Samson Odhiambo Ochieng his Itel mobile phone worth Sh10,000 and Sh400 cash, Baraka FM reports.
Ochieng told the court he was taken to the police cell after being ordered to pay a fine of Sh5,000 for parking his tuktuk on a yellow line.
He said he was making a call near the cell’s window when he felt a hand grab his neck from behind.
Ochieng then raised alarm but other inmates did not come to his rescue, and was later rescued by court orderlies, but upon a search conducted on the accused persons, the items were not recovered.
“The hand grabbing me held my neck and attempted to empty my pocket as another hand snatched my phone,” said Ochieng.
The accused, Onyango, who was convicted for the offence of loitering told the court that the complainant lost his phone before he came into the cell.
The other accused person, Omondi, said he was in the same cell with the complainant and he heard him claiming that his cellphone was stolen.
Senior Resident Magistrate Edigah Kagoni in his ruling said the fact that the complainant’s phone was stolen while inside the court cell was not disputed and therefore sentenced the two accused persons to death.
“This is a very rare and interesting case where it is alleged that an inmate was violently robbed off his cellphone and cash while in court cells and the cellphone was not recovered immediately,” said Magistrate Kagoni, as quoted by the daily.