Beware who sells you that fancy phone
Beware that phone you purchase on the cheap can be the source of your tribulations.
Twenty-three-year-old Matheka Musembi, a garbage collector is in trouble for an offence he will now have to convince the court he had nothing to do with.
His mistake; being in possession of a mobile phone that belongs to Loice Nyokabi King’ori, a woman who was found murdered in Umoja, Nairobi in September.
In the same predicament is 18-year-old Esther Nekesa, a house-help who told police investigators she bought another mobile phone belonging to the murdered woman. She allegedly purchased the gadget from Ms Elizabeth Muthoki Kinyae aged 19, who trades in them. They were arrested on October 14.
Police said the late Nyokabi was murdered between September 20 and 23 this year.
Ms Kinyae, who operates a mobile phone repair shop with her husband, told the police that she bought the phone from a youthful man who had initially wanted it repaired.
But the man, who is unknown to her, was unable to pay for the cost and opted to sell the gadget to her altogether. She claimed that she bought it at Sh700 and cannot trace the seller.
After repairing the mobile phone, she sold it to her house help – Ms Muyaka – who is now her co-accused.
Detectives traced Ms Muyaka immediately she inserted her SIM card into the phone. She led the police to Ms Kinyae.
The charge sheet stated that she robbed Ms Nyokabi of the phone of unknown value on an unknown date between September 20 and September 23, 2023 in contravention of section 296 (2) of the Penal Code.
A few days later, Musembi was arrested and was charged with robbery with violence.
The garbage collector is facing an additional charge of handling stolen goods contrary to section 32 (1) (2) of the Penal Code, after he was allegedly found with the phone.
Ms Nyokabi was found dead at her doorstep on September 23 by her sister who went to check on her, after she failed to answer calls unusually before her two phones were switched off.
Musembi, just like the two others, was traced by the DCI and arrested after he inserted his SIM card in one of the deceased’s phones and started using it.
He told the detectives that he had found the phone in a trash he was offloading from a lorry that had delivered garbage at a site in Dandora, Nairobi, nearly two months ago.
The suspect said he threw the line he had found in the phone, and started using the phone.
Recovered mobile phones and other computer accessories displayed at DCI office in Nakuru town on February 9, 2021.
The police said the murder victim was seen alive on Wednesday September 20 at around 7pm and she did not communicate thereafter.
He sister went to check on her on the morning of Saturday September 23 only to find her dead.
According to the police, Nyokabi’s killers, who appear to be highly skilled murderers, took away her two mobile phones after stabbing her in the abdomen, neck and hands. They are believed to have disposed of the mobile phones without using them. The police are yet to establish the motive behind the murder.
Musembi denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Irene Gichobi of the Makadara Law Courts. He was remanded until January 18, 2024 when the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) is expected to consolidate the two cases so that Musembi, Ms Kinyae and Ms Muyaka are jointly charged.
The teenage women denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Erick Mutunga and were released on a bond of Sh200,000 each with a surety of a similar amount.
In a similar but sad incident, Mr Joshua Otieno and his wife Nyambura, spent one year and nine months in remand for the murder of a neighbour’s daughter, who was raped and hacked to death on the night of June 12 and 13, 2004 at Matukanio farm within Nakuru.
The duo spent the time in remand together with their son who was then aged two years after being accused of murdering Ann Wambui Gitonga, described as a brilliant girl.
The girl had excelled in her 2002 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) as one of the top students at Alliance Girls High School and secured a temporary job at a local supermarket where she worked as a cashier.
To honour Wambui, the guest during the prize giving day gave her Sh3,000 as a personal gift and her father topped up the amount and she acquired a mobile phone, Nokia 3310 for Sh6,490.
It is the gadget that would make Mr Otieno and his wife spend 711 days in remand for a crime they were eventually found to have known nothing about.
They were charged together with John Kibaki Kamau and Josephat Kariuki Ndung’u, who were eventually found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by Justice Daniel Musinga (now Court of Appeal judge) on May 19, 2006. Their appeal was equally dismissed. Evidence presented in court was that Otieno purchased the mobile phone from Mr Kamau, who claimed to have purchased it from Ndung’u.
After acquiring the gadget, Otieno gifted his wife only to be arrested about two weeks later for the heinous murder and their lives turned upside down.
It was Otieno was arrested first and he led the police to his house where his wife was picked. He also led the police to the arrest of Kamau and who eventually led to the arrest of Ndung’u, a stone mason who was picked up from his Engashura farm home, in Bahati area. While acquitting the man and his wife, Justice Musinga wondered whether they really took part in the murder.
“In the above circumstances, does possession of the deceased’s mobile phone by the first accused a few days after the brutal killing of the deceased connect her to the murder of the deceased? I do not think so,” the judge said.
The judge said Nyambura gave a reasonable explanation as to how she came to be in possession of the mobile phone and the prosecution did not adduce any other evidence to connect her with the offence.
Otieno informed the court that he was approached by Kamau selling the phone for Sh2,500 and he bargained and seller slashed Sh500.
In a separate incident that played out earlier in the corridors of justice, an elderly man was charged before a Nairobi Court in February 2010 with robbery with violence.
Jaston Ongule Onyango, then aged 92, was picked by police officers who raided his house in Kawangware in the morning of February 12, 2010. The police claimed some items, including a mobile phone allegedly stolen from a couple in Westlands had been traced to him.
He was held for 11 days before he was charged but the police later substituted his charges with possession of narcotic substances and papers resembling currency. He was released on bail, but could not raise the Sh100,000 required. The amount was later reduced to Sh60,000 and he was released and after trial the magistrate ruled that he has no case to answer.
The elderly man later sued the government and was awarded Sh4 million for malicious prosecution.
