The tongue holds the power of life and death, as a Kisumu man found out. George Odhiambo had a nasty argument with a friend and threatened to kill him.
He swore that as the friend’s body would be ferried to the mortuary, he would be heading to jail. The threat came to pass.
Odhiambo will spend 30 years in prison after he narrowly escaped the hangman’s noose.
He had stabbed his friend to death. Odhiambo committed the crime in 2016 after the duo had a heated argument.
A witness told court that as Kennedy Ougo turned and started walking away, Odhiambo followed him and stabbed him with a knife, killing him instantly.
At the High Court, Odhiambo was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in February 2017.
He appealed on the grounds that the sentence was harsh and inhumane. But the Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, saying the evidence against the convict was indisputable.
The court, however, overturned the sentence, finding that “the learned judge did not properly consider all the options that were available to him in sentencing the appellant; and we find that there is justification for us to interfere with the sentence that was imposed.”
In the place of a death sentence, Odhiambo will remain in jail, as per his threat, for 30 years. The senteence factors 2014 when he was first arrested.
“We take into consideration
the circumstances of the case, the
injuries that were inflicted on thedeceased, and the appellant’s mitigation, and in our considered view,
find a sentence of 30 years imprisonment to be appropriate,” the
judgement reads.
