Two men convicted of lynching a neighbour suspected of attempted theft have been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The Court of Appeal on October 11 in Kisumu overturned the death sentence, substituting it to 30 years.
The crime took place more than 10 years ago on March 6, 2013, in a village in Vihiga county.
Gilbert Opisa and his accomplice Oscar Ogutu stripped their victim naked, bludgeoned him from head to toe and dislocated his neck, the court found.
A lynch mob was present.
He said the victim had sneaked into Opisa’s empty house and when he returned from the market, he found the trespasser in his bedroom.
He said the man attempted to attack him with a rungu.
Opisa argued that he assaulted the alleged trespasser in self-defence.
The court said there were no defensive wounds on Opisa’s body and rejected his argument.
Opisa swore a statement that “on reaching [his] door [returning from the market] he found the same unlocked and on entering he found someone in his bedroom.
“On seeing him, the said person took a club and attempted to hit him but he evaded the attack, ran outside, locked the door and raised an alarm, prompting people to come to the scene.”
Opisa also said he asked neighbours to guard his house as he rushed to the AP post at Mabango to report the case and attempted assault. All officers were out on assignment, so he returned home, he said.
He arrived to find a large crowd had gathered and said the supposed thief had been taken out of the house.
He was naked, lying on the ground and had been badly beaten.
Opisa said one of the prosecution witnesses who was present urged the crowd to spare the man and promised to pay damages and losses that Opisa said amounted to Sh10,000 and a belt.
Ogutu was charged alongside Opisa as being an accessory to murder.
A postmortem report said blunt injuries were probably inflicted using blows or rungus.
The High Court said, however,
the evidence against the two was
circumstantial as no one saw them
assaulting the man.
