{"id":134676,"date":"2026-03-18T14:02:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/2-men-sentenced-to-death-for-robbing-woman-of-cash-and-onions-in-meru\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:02:56","slug":"2-men-sentenced-to-death-for-robbing-woman-of-cash-and-onions-in-meru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/2-men-sentenced-to-death-for-robbing-woman-of-cash-and-onions-in-meru\/","title":{"rendered":"2 men sentenced to death for robbing woman of cash and onions in Meru"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 18 \u2014 Two men have been sentenced to death after a court in Meru County found them guilty of robbery with violence in an attack that left a woman injured and robbed of cash and household goods.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said Douglas Muriithi and Antony Mugendi were convicted over the September 6, 2024 incident in Maua Location, Igembe South Sub-County.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, the two men, armed with pangas, metal rods and timber, attacked the victim, identified as Janice Gacheri, at around 11.40pm.<\/p>\n

They stole Sh5,700 in cash, 87 kilograms of sugar valued at Sh13,050, and 17 kilograms of onions worth Sh850 \u2014 bringing the total value of the stolen items to Sh19,600.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attackers, armed with dangerous weapons, accosted the victim and robbed her of the items,\u201d the ODPP said.<\/p>\n

Commutation <\/h2>\n

The court heard that the victim was injured during the incident, a factor that aggravated the offence.<\/p>\n

It ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, leading to the conviction and sentencing of the two accused. The case was prosecuted by Kelvin Gitonga.<\/p>\n

Despite the sentence, Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987 and maintains a longstanding practice of commuting death sentences to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n

In 2016, then-President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted the sentences of 2,747 death row inmates to life terms.<\/p>\n

The legal landscape surrounding capital punishment has also evolved in recent years.<\/p>\n

In the landmark Francis Karioko Muruatetu v. Republic ruling, the Supreme Court of Kenya declared the mandatory death penalty for murder unconstitutional, sparking broader debate on sentencing reforms.<\/p>\n

Although the decision did not automatically apply to offences such as robbery with violence, the court signaled that similar constitutional challenges could produce comparable outcomes.<\/p>\n

Subsequent directions issued in 2021 clarified that, if retained, the death penalty should be reserved for the \u201crarest of rare\u201d cases involving intentional and aggravated killings.<\/p>\n

Efforts to abolish capital punishment altogether remain ongoing, with several bills before Parliament seeking to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 18 \u2014 Two men have been sentenced to death after a court in Meru County found them guilty of robbery with violence in an attack that left a woman injured and robbed of cash and household goods. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said Douglas Muriithi and Antony Mugendi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}