Two get 30 years in jail for violent carjacking
Antony Ekai Mwaiti and (right) and Kennedy Karanja Mungai at the Milimani law courts when they were sentenced to serve 30 years in prison for robbing a taxi driver his car violently.
Two knife-wielding robbers who tied a taxi driver with a manila rope then dumped him on top of a sewage manhole before fleeing with his car have been jailed for 30 years.
Antony Ekai Mwaiti and Kennedy Karanja Mungai were convicted by Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi for the crime committed in 2016.
Mr Ochoi said the prosecution, led by Mr James Gachoka, presented tangible evidence that placed the two armed robbers at the scene of crime.
The magistrate said the two men hired Simon Michael Kanyi from Hilton Hotel on March 3, 2016, and asked him to drop them at the Ole Sereni hotel on Mombasa Road.
Use the Southern bypass
They asked the taxi driver to use the Southern bypass and he agreed.
Mr Ochoi said the robbers asked Kanyi to slow down, pretending they wanted to answer a call of nature, but Karanja threw a rope around the driver’s neck while Ekhai produced a knife from his pocket and threatened to kill him if he did not comply.
“Ekhai threatened to kill Kanyi if he resisted,” Mr Ochoi noted. And to show he was serious, he cut Kanyi’s fingers.
Karanja opened the driver’s door then pulled out Kanyi.
They tied his legs and hands with the manila rope before dumping him on top of the manhole.
Mr Ochoi said the robbers took off with the taxi and a mobile phone, both worth Sh552,000.
The robbers were arrested with the vehicle at the junction of Muthaiga and Limuru roads the same day.
The vehicle stalled
Police arrested them when the vehicle stalled after it ran out of fuel.
They were arrested while waiting for a rider to bring them fuel.
The convicts pleaded for mercy, and while Mr Gachoka said the offence is serious, calling for a harsh penalty, he said they should be treated as first offenders.
Passing sentence, the magistrate said “the robbers committed a life-threatening crime and cared less what would befall the victim whom they left at the mercy of fate.”
