DAVID KAMAU WANJIRU V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

In the early morning of 20^th December, 2003 at [Particulars Withheld] Village in Thika District, a gang of seven robbers who were armed with knives, machetes and sticks accosted and robbed DWK (PW1), her husband and a friend, AWM (PW2) while walking home at 2.00am. In the course of the robbery, PW1’s husband escaped leaving the two ladies at the mercy of the robbers. After stealing Kshs.140 and Kshs. 80 respectively from the ladies, five members of the gang took PW2 to a dark part off the road and removed her clothes in an attempt to rape her. As the five were so preoccupied, PW1 got an opportunity and escaped into a nearby residential plot from where she raised alarm. As police officers who were on patrol in the area responded, all the robbers fled. That very night, the police were able to arrest two suspects, David Kamau Wanjiru (the appellant) and (Julius Ngugi Kangethe), his co-accused, who could not give an account of themselves at that wee hour. To give a ch…