Police officer gets death penalty for robbery in Nairobi

Police constable Gilbert Ingosi Chemoso is led out of a Nairobi court on Thursday after he was handed the death penalty for robbing a businessman, Chrispine Otieno Odongo, of Sh90,000 on June 25, 2012 on Bandari Road, Industrial Area, in Nairobi. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Constable Gilbert Ingosi Chemosi was convicted and sentenced to hang.
  • A search at his house at the Makongeni Police Station, the magistrate observed, yielded an unserviceable handcuff.
  • A second suspect in the case, Mr George Kamau Ndogo, a civilian, was acquitted.

A police officer has been handed the death penalty for a robbery he still denies he committed in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.

Constable Gilbert Ingosi Chemosi was convicted and sentenced to hang at the Chief Magistrate’s court in Milimani on Thursday for robbing Mr Chrispine Otieno Odongo of Sh90,000 on June 25, 2012 along Bandari Road, shortly after he withdrew the money from a bank.

A second suspect in the case, Mr George Kamau Ndogo, a civilian, was however acquitted, after Chief Magistrate Hannah Ndung’u ruled that there was no direct evidence linking him to the offence.

Mr Ndogo has a separate pending judgment in a case in which he is charged with robbery alongside three other police officers.

Ms Ndung'u on Thursday said that despite an alibi Mr Ingosi gave, which was supported by his colleague with whom he had been assigned guard duties at a nearby bank where the robbery was committed, “he had all the opportunity to leave his work station and commit the offence and return back (sic) to work.”

A search at his house at the Makongeni Police Station, the magistrate observed, yielded an unserviceable handcuff, which “he explained away as having belonged to another police officer who occupied the house before him.”

FINGERPRINTS TAKEN

Mr Ingosi had also been charged with refusing to have his fingerprints taken during investigations, but on Thursday the magistrate dropped the charge for lack of evidence.

She said she would focus on the charge of robbery in which the complainant identified his assailant positively as he attacked him while dressed in his uniform.

Mr Ndogo, she said, had been arrested by members of the public on a separate day and was only identified as the co-driver of the getaway vehicle in which Mr Otieno had been pushed into when he was attacked.

The magistrate said the robbery victim had no opportunity to identify Mr Ndogo and gave “him the benefit of doubt” although she said she suspected that he may have been involved in the incident.

“Mr John Shegu, the investigating officer on May 24, also told the court that while acting on a tip-off, he managed to arrest the second accused at Co-operative Bank on Nanyuki Road,” the magistrate said.

She said that on the other hand, Mr Ingosi was in full uniform when “he sprung at the complainant and held him by the neck before pushing him into a waiting vehicle, which later drove off.”

GUARD DUTIES

“He saw the AK-47 rifle which had been assigned to the police officer for his guard duties and identified the person who robbed him,” the magistrate said.

She said that during his testimony the complainant had a “firm resolve and was sure that the police officer was involved in the robbery.”

“He was told to return to the scene, which was in the vicinity where the police officer had been stationed to work and saw him again,” the magistrate said.

She said the complainant later picked out his assailant in a police identification parade.

A colleague of Mr Ingosi, Mr Benjamin Kisulu, and a guard at the premises he guarded gave sworn testimonies that on the day the robbery was committed he “never left his workstation”.

But the magistrate dismissed the evidence, stating that the police officer had the opportunity to leave the workstation and commit the crime and rush back.

The magistrate said the conditions for identification were not complex.

“Indeed, he was in uniform when he committed the crime, (and) the complainant believed that he had been arrested before he was robbed,” she said.