Cops in Kwekwe Mwandazas murder case to serve seven years

The High Court in Mombasa has upheld a 7-year sentence for police officers who were found guilty of killing Kwekwe Mwandaza.

Presiding over the case, High Court Judge, Asike Makhandie, further quashed the government order to sentence the two officers to life imprisonment.

This means that Inspector Veronicah Gitahi and Constable Issa Mzee, will now continue serving their initial seven year sentences.

The court, however, rejected an appeal to have them released.

This comes after Justice Martin Muya on the 10th of February 2016, found former Kinango DCIO Veronical Gitahi and Constable Issa Mzee guilty of manslaughter over the shooting of 14-year-old Kwekwe Mwandaza two years ago at her parent’s home in Kinango village, Kwale County.

Justice Muya further ruled that there was gross omission on the part of the accused persons who failed to establish the occupants of the house before they raided.

During the trial, the two officers who are alleged to have jointly murdered the schoolgirl, maintained that they had acted in self-defense when they came under attack after storming a house in Kinango where Mwandaza was asleep.

The girl was shot dead at 2:00 am on August 21st, 2014, during an incident in which eight police officers stormed her family’s home at Mwawewu Village.