Friday, June 30, 2022 – The Directorate of Criminal Investigations welcomes the life sentence handed down on two suspects, who were caught on camera attacking a man at gunpoint along Rose Avenue in Kilimani, on the morning of June 25, 2020.
In an incident that was captured live on CCTV cameras in adjacent buildings and shared widely on social media attracting national attention, Paul Sewe Momanyi was accosted outside Almond Court as he headed to work at around 7 am, by two men who had leapt from a motorbike.
One of them later identified as Humphrey Minyatta, (first accused) placed a knife on his throat as his accomplice Timothy Muzami (second accused) pointed a firearm on his forehead and snatched a bag that he was carrying.
The first accused ransacked Momanyi’s pockets and took his mobile phone before they both jumped on the waiting motorbike leaving Momanyi heavily shaken after the 45 seconds ordeal.
Immediately after receiving the report, Detectives based at DCI Kilimani swung into action on a manhunt for the thugs, as the DCI Comms. team sent out an appeal on Twitter, asking Kenyans with information regarding the suspects to volunteer it to detectives.
The seasoned sleuths led by the then Kilimani crime buster Fatuma Hadi, mounted a stealth intelligence-led operation, that took them to the densely populated areas of Gatina, Kanungaka, and Kawangware where they laid an ambush for the suspects for three days and later widened their dragnet to Pangani where the two suspects were arrested after a week.
After the arrest, the first accused took the detectives to his house where they discovered the knife that the suspect had brandished and the yellow-brown jacket and pair of shoes that he wore as captured in the CCTV footage on the day of the attack.
An identification parade was conducted and Momanyi positively identified the two as the ones who had attacked him. A third suspect who was also arrested led the detectives to the recovery of Momanyi’s two phones and a laptop, although he could not be directly linked to the two suspects.
Detectives based at the Forensic Imaging and Acoustics unit retrieved the CCTV footage and after subjecting it to forensic analysis, confirmed that it was authentic and had not been tampered with. With that conclusion, the thugs’ fate was sealed.
In her judgment, Senior Resident Magistrate Hon Zainabu Abdul, sitting in the Chief Magistrate’s Court at the Milimani Law courts noted that although the firearm used by the second accused has not been recovered, it is still out there being used to commit similar atrocities on innocent Kenyans.
She added that despite the accused persons being first-time offenders, they were not remorseful for their actions after causing untold mental anguish to the victim.
Hon Zainabu added that such cases where criminals were using Boda Bodas as getaway means were on the rise, hence the need to deter such acts by pronouncing the life sentence for the duo.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations thanks Hon Zainabu for handing down the sentence to the two miscreants, in a case that has taken a short time to conclude.
We hope the sentence serves as a measure of justice to Momanyi, who reported to our officers his life-threatening encounter with the thugs and we went out looking for them.
Equally, the sentence serves as a motivation to our officers who risk their lives every day, in guaranteeing the public safety and security of every Kenyan.
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