Kwekwe Mwandaza killers get seven years in jail

The High Court sitting in Mombasa on Monday sentenced two police officers to seven years in jail each after they were found guilty of ‘killing’ 14-year-old schoolgirl Kwekwe Mwandaza at Kinango in Kwale County.

The sentencing of Inspector Veronicah Gitahi and Constable Issa Mzee had been postponed from Friday last week after the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) filed an application seeking to have the two officers compensate Mwandaza’s family.

In his judgment last Wednesday, Justice Martin Muya had also found the duo guilty of misusing their rifles when they shot the girl at her parent’s home during a raid in pursuit of her uncle, George Zani, who was wanted for alleged murder.

Justice Muya had 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 carried out their raid.

Justice Muya, however, noted that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had intention of murdering Kwekwe which reduced their murder charge to manslaughter.

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.

Police initially claimed Kwekwe attacked officers with a machete wounding one of them and destroying a gun.

Two minors, said to have been present at the time of the killing, testified that the deceased had pleaded incessantly for her life, a plea that they say fell on deaf ears.

High Court Judge Martin Muya gave audience to the two sides as they publicly cross-examined the minors.