A househelp charged with robbery with violence in former Cabinet Minister Maina Wanjigi’s house has been convicted.
Dorcas Mumbi was found guilty after Kibera chief magistrate Joyce Gandani ruled that the prosecution proved the case.
Mumbi committed the offence alongside Hilda Nabweko on November 22, 2013, on Rhino Park Estate, Karen, Nairobi. They will be sentenced on Friday.
The court heard that she aided the entry of robbers into Wanjigi’s house. The robbers tied and tortured Wanjigi and his wife Mary—parents of businessman Jimi Wanjigi—using an iron box before fleeing with valuables.
Wanjigi, a former Kamkunji MP, and his wife Mary were among those relied on by Prosecutor Jeff Musyoka as witnesses. Musyoka said the accused had no prior criminal record.
Wanjigi said the robbers’ entry had been aided from within. The gang entered the house through the kitchen door, which, apparently, had been left open. They stole goods worth Sh300,000, including a pistol, an LG radio, aTV set, two Samsung mobile phones worth Sh50,000 each, and golden items worth Sh200,000.
Nabweko was acquitted of the robbery charges but was found guilty of possessing a Sh7,000 mobile phone stolen from Florence Gitungo, one of the people in the Wanjigi household at the time.
Four men involved in the robbery were shot after they tried to shoot at the police.
In his testimony, Wanjigi said the thugs tied both his hands and legs and he saw them well as the room was lit. He had just reached home and was about to pour a drink for his wife.
“I used to give my wife a drink, but two people appeared all of a sudden; they were well-armed and some had something like pangas and there was one with a gun,” he said.
The robbers ordered all of them to lie down.
“Everybody was tied and I could see what was happening, the sitting room was lit. I saw everybody well, the man with the gun asked me to stand up after untying me. They asked me to take them to our bedroom and said they knew I had a gun,” Wanjigi said.
The gang demanded that he show them where the gun was, but he said it was in a safe that could not be opened easily.
“They didn’t believe me, they thought I was lying and told me that ‘Mzee hapana cheza na sisi (don’t take us for granted)’ but I insisted that I never had another key. They took me downstairs and made me lie so that they could deal with my wife,” he narrated.
His wife was taken to the bedroom and forced to open the safe. The robbers stole some pieces of jewellery and ransacked the drawer.
“They told my wife to lie close to me and they tied both of us with a cloth, tied my mouth so that I could not scream, took an iron box, fixed it on the socket and burnt us… Our wounds are still there,” Wanjigi said.
“I could not scream or breathe. I was waiting for the next second to pass out and after they finished with me, they used the same iron box on my wife Mary.”
After the robbers left, he untied himself and then his wife. Mary then went downstairs and pressed the alarm and good Samaritans went and took them to hospital.
Mumbi had confessed that she knew one of the suspects, Gandani noted in her judgment. The magistrate ruled that the defence was not solid.
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