The prosecution secured an appellate victory after the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and death sentence of a man found guilty of robbery with violence.
A three-judge bench dismissed the appeal by Mwanzia Mbithi, affirming the decisions of both the trial court and the High Court.
Mbithi was convicted of robbing Abdi Ahmed Hussein of 15 mobile phones valued at Sh183,050, while using actual violence against the complainant.
The offence was committed on October 22, 2016, along Ronald Ngala Street in Nairobi.
In its judgment, the Court of Appeal found that the conviction was firmly grounded in law and supported by credible, consistent and corroborated evidence.
“The sentence meted against him was as prescribed by law, and therefore the High Court did not err by upholding both the conviction and the sentence. This appeal is therefore devoid of any merit and is hereby dismissed,” the judges ruled.
The appellate court further held that Section 296(2) of the Penal Code expressly provides the death penalty as the lawful punishment for the offence of robbery with violence.
The judges found that the High Court had properly re-evaluated and re-assessed the evidence before concluding that there were no material inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case.
“We are satisfied that the discrepancies highlighted by the appellant amount only to trifling inconsistencies that did not undermine the prosecution’s case,” the court stated.
On the issue of identification, the bench affirmed that the appellant was positively identified and that both the trial court and the High Court had correctly relied on the identification evidence in reaching their verdict.
The Court of Appeal also rejected Mbithi’s claim that his constitutional rights had been violated due to a lack of legal representation.
The judges held that the issue could not be entertained because it had not been raised or determined before the High Court, making it improper to introduce it for the first time on a second appeal.
The dismissal of the appeal means Mbithi will continue serving the death sentence imposed by the trial court after exhausting his appeals before both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
The matter was handled by Njoki King’ara.
