10-year jail term upheld for preacher who chopped of man's hand

A pastor who chopped off another man’s hand in Mikinduri town, Meru County, amid a protracted land row has lost an appeal to have his 10-year jail term overturned.

Meru Judge Edward Muriithi said the prosecution had proved that Mishek Gitonga Mugambi attacked Mr Jeremiah Nyaga and slashed his right hand at the elbow seven years ago.

He said the sentence imposed by Tigania Senior Resident Magistrate Gathogo Sogomo was sufficient as evidence indicated that the pastor would have killed the hotelier if a mob had not intervened and threatened to stone him.

The court heard how the clergyman, who was in a car, had blocked a bodaboda ferrying Mr Nyaga and emerged wielding a machete, which he used to slash him.

The victim ran off with his hand hanging by a few veins and some skin, with the pastor and another man identified as Sebastian in hot pursuit.

Threatened to burn house

Mr Nyaga took refuge in a house and locked it from inside as pastor Mugambi glared menacingly, threatening to burn it down.

Members of the public, however, intervened and rescued him by forming a ring around him, and when the pastor threatened to attack, the mob started pelting him with stones.

The pastor and his accomplice fled to the Mikinduri police station, where he surrendered himself and was arrested.

During the fateful afternoon on October 30, 2014, the victim was heading to his home in Amugaa, having been informed that the family’s house was on fire.

On the previous day, his father had summoned him claiming that he felt unsafe because the pastor and another man had stormed their home and harassed him.

During the hearing of the case, which spanned seven years, the prosecution called four witnesses, who placed pastor Mugambi at the scene of the crime and produced the machete.

Ms Mareta Karambu told the trial court that she witnessed the incident and heard one Sebastian quarrelling with pastor Mugambi because he had failed to strike the victim’s neck.

Arm amputated

Dr Sebastian Mutegi testified that Mr Nyaga was admitted to Meru Level Five Hospital for 15 days, and doctors had to amputate the arm at the elbow because it had developed a deformity after it was sutured.

The pastor appealed the sentence, saying it was excessive and that the trial court should have called more witnesses as the crime happened in a busy market.

However, the prosecution said the four were enough since what was required was just to prove that the crime was committed and evidence that he was the one who carried it out.

Upholding the sentence, Justice Muriithi expressed his horror that the pastor could have killed the victim.

“The court is appalled by the grievous intention of the appellant to kill the complainant, which he and his accomplice might have executed were it not for the intervention of the public,” he said.

“In the circumstances, this court does not find that the sentence of 10 years was in any way excessive and there is thus no reason to interfere with the sentencing discretion of the trial court.”

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