Two men who stabbed dead a Kenya Utalii College student to death during an alleged robbery near the Traffic Police Unit headquarters along Thika Superhighway in Nairobi have been denied bail and bond.
The two, Maxwell Omukhuba Shisoka and Kevin Ngechu, who appeared before the Makadara Law Courts, are facing robbery with violence charges.
They have been charged with violently robbing Job Chahonyo of his mobile phone worth Sh12,000 contrary to section 296 (2) of the penal code on February 4, 2023.
Mr Chahonyo was returning to the institution in the company of three female female colleagues when he was accosted by the two suspects who allegedly robbed and stabbed him on the chest before speeding off on a motorcycle.
The matter was reported to officers at Muthaiga Police Station and thereafter police officers visited the scene of crime. The student was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
After visiting and processing the scene, the officers proceeded to the hospital where they found Mr Chahonyo’s body and moved it to City Mortuary as investigations into the robbery began.
Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Starehe offices took over the investigations and obtained the International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) number of Mr Chahonyo’s mobile phone and established that the deceased’s phone was in use.
Detective constable Richard Kalaine of Starehe DCI offices obtained the mobile phone number that was being used on the phone and also traced its registered owner.
However, upon arrest, the suspect who registered the SIM card that was being used on Mr Chahonyo’s phone (name withheld) told the detectives that he had registered it for a former colleague whom they worked with in Kazi Mtaani Initiative in 2020 because the former colleague did not have a national identity card yet he needed an M-Pesa account for mobile money transactions.
He led the detectives to a house in Kariobangi estate in Nairobi where the person using Mr Chahonyo’s phone Maxwell Shisoka was found and arrested but the phone was not recovered.
Mr Shisoka admitted to the detectives that he was in company of his accomplice when they robbed Mr Chahonyo of his phone. He led the investigators to Ngechu’s house where he was also arrested.
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Mr Shisoka, who was riding the motorcycle during the alleged robbery, led the detectives to the owner of the motorbike that he was using.
The motorcycle’s owner told investigators that she had hired Mr Shisoka as a rider for the day to operate within Kariobangi and its environs and was not aware that the bike had been used in any robbery. The DCI officers recovered the motorbike which will be used as an exhibit in the case.
Mr Shisoka and Mr Ngechu were arraigned before Principal magistrate Lewis Gatheru of Makadara Law Courts where they denied the charges. The DCI made an application to have the two denied bail and bond terms.
Detective constable Richard Kalaine told the court that the two suspects have been charged with a similar offence in courts in Nairobi and Muranga Law Courts and he is in a process of verifying the same.
In an affidavit filed at the court, Mr Kalaine said the two are flight risks and cannot be traced in case they jump bail and bonds.
He added that the safety of the suspects is not guaranteed should they be released on bond. Mr Gatheru suspended bail and bond terms for the two suspects until May 10 when he will receive a report from Mr Kalaine’s investigations.
