Officers who killed three in cold blood escape hangman’s noose

Two police officers who killed their colleague and his two relatives in cold blood at a club in Kangemi, Nairobi will spend 10 years in jail after a divided Court of Appeal quashed a death sentence imposed on them by the High Court two years ago.

While justices William Ouko and Agnes Murgor ruled that circumstances of the murder incident allowed interference with the death sentence, Justice Fatuma Sichale declined to sign the ruling as she was of a different opinion which was not disclosed.

The officers, Benjamin Changawa and Stanley Okoti, had been condemned to death by the High Court in November 2018 for murdering Administration Police Constable Joseph Obongo Onchuru together with his two relatives, Geoffrey Nyabuto Mogoi and Amos Okenye Makori.

FIRST OFFENDERS

However, the Court of Appeal judges saved the officers from the hangman by reducing the sentence, saying the officers were first offenders and had clean records of service with no disciplinary proceedings against them.

"In our considered view, going by the appellants’ mitigating circumstances, which include the fact that both were first offenders, their long public service, being 30 and 20 years respectively, their clean records of service with no disciplinary proceedings against them and the fact that they were both family men and bread winners, we are minded to allow the appeal on sentence and interfere with the sentence of death," said the judges.

They described the murder incident, which occurred on October 6, 2014 at M-Club Kangemi, as reckless use of firearms by the police, leading to senseless loss of lives of three innocent people.

Mr Onchuru, who was attached to former Bomachoge Borabu MP Joel Onyancha, had just dropped his boss at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on the fateful night before returning to his base at Kitisuru AP Camp.

PISTOL

He arrived late in the night and asked for permission to get out and buy airtime. However, Nr Onchuru and his two relatives proceeded to M-Club in Kangemi, where they ordered for a drink.

But Mr Onchuru was not drinking and he sat alone at the back of the club. It is not clear why he sat alone and without a drink.

At one point he took to the dancing floor with one of the female bar attendants who noticed that he was armed with a pistol. She drew the attention of the watchman and in turn, the watchman approached Mr Onchuru and requested him to identify himself.

Instead of doing so, APC Onchuru showed the watchman the pistol and a confrontation ensued.

Other four men joined in the fray, in the process of which they attacked the watchman.

Surprisingly, the watchman single-handedly overpowered the group and pushed Mr Onchuru to the kitchen and locked him inside while a supervisor at the club called the police.

ROBBERY REPORT

Information relayed by the police control room in Nairobi Area through police radio to Kabete police station was that there was an on-going robbery at the club. For this reason, the control room cautioned officers going to the scene to approach it with utmost care.

The two convicts, together with Corporal Alex Miheso responded to the incident armed with AK 47 rifles, each loaded with 30 rounds of ammunition.

Upon arrival they found the three victims locked in the club and ordered them to surrender by lying on the ground and seized Mr Onchuru's pistol.

The officers then rained 12 bullets on the three people with witnesses saying the gunshots rang out in quick succession.

10 BULLETS FIRED

Evidence in court showed that 10 bullets were fired from Changawa's rifle and two from from the rifle being used by Okoiti.

Each of the dead persons had gun shots in the head among other sensitive parts of the body, including the chest and abdomen.

On their part, the appellants explained that, being aware that they were about to face “armed robbers”, they demanded that the suspects surrender. But one of the suspects instead started to shoot at them and at that point they too were compelled to open fire, shooting and killing all three instantly. According to them, the shooting was in self-defence.

DEATH SENTENCE

But trial judge Stella Mutuku, while sentencing them to death, said they should have used non-violent means to arrest the three because this would have served the purpose.

"It is my view too that the accused persons used force that was not proportionate to the objective to be achieved, that is, arresting the deceased persons. The numerous gun-shot wounds suffered by the deceased persons is proof enough of the manner they were killed. The accused persons were not trying to immobilise the deceased persons," said Justice Mutuku.

The Judge was disturbed by attempts by some people to interfere with the scene of crime by making it appear that APC Onchuru used his firearm, to justify the self-defence version. The defence had also claimed that Mr Onchuru shot himself, something Justice Mutuku described as ridiculous.

“I doubt that Onchuru shot himself and the only logical conclusion I can draw is that one of the accused persons who took the pistol from Onchuru used the same gun on Onchuru as well as the AK 47 rifle in his possession," said justice Mutuku.