Nairobi, KENYA: Two police officers have been sentenced to death for the murder of three people among them a police officer who was attached to the administration police.
Justice S.N Mutuku handed the sentence on Wednesday after the court found them guilty in early November.
During the ruling, the court heard the two police constables, Benjamin Kahindi Changawa and Stanley Okoti based at Kabete police station shot and killed Administration Police Constable Joseph Obongo Onchuru, Geoffrey Nyabuto Mogoi, and Amos Okenye Makori all relatives, at an entertainment joint on October 7th, 2014 on claims of robbery.
“Following the shooting, IPOA launched investigations on October 7, 2014, to unravel the circumstances that led to the deaths, and to establish whether the police officers were justified in the use of their firearms,” read a statement by IPOA.
During the hearing, the court learned that a total of 12 bullets were shot into the bodies of the victims and the court said they were neither fired to immobilize nor to protect lives that were in danger.
In their defense, the two constables said they were responding to an armed robbery at M-club in Nairobi’s Kangemi area where they identified the victims as suspects and asked them to surrender but instead they chose to fire at them.
However, bar attendants who testified told the court that the slain officers and their kin were lying on the floor in surrender and the two officers killed them when they were lying on the ground.
The bar attendants told the court that the AP officer had already handed over his guns to the police officers but they nonetheless shot him.
IPOA was formed in 2012 through an act of parliament to check police excesses against civilians, including unlawful killings, inflicting serious injuries, gross misconduct among other ills.
