Thursday, August 21, 2025 - Kithimani Magistrate's court has sentenced a man to 20 years' imprisonment for shooting a Kenya Power staff member with an arrow while on official duty.
The court heard that Kioko Kavita shot Esau Ogutu Mbadi on
June 7th, 2024 at Kithendu village in Yatta Sub-County within
Machakos County.
He was charged with unlawfully attempting to cause the death
of Esau by shooting him on the right side below the ribs with a bow and arrow.
The complainant was among the Kenya Power staff assigned to
prune trees that had encroached on power facilities at Kithendu village when
the accused person attacked him.
The court heard that when the officers reached the home of
the accused person, they saw an avocado tree, which, according to them, was the
cause to the persistent power outage in the area since it was interfering with
fuses.
The accused person was informed of the danger of the tree,
and he was requested to allow them to cut down the tree, which, according to
the witnesses, he refused and threatened to attack anyone who would cut down
the tree.
The officials told him that they would not leave since the
village had no electricity.
This is when the accused ran into his house and came back
with bows and arrows.
He retreated a few steps and shot the complainant with an
arrow on the right side of the abdomen.
The complainant was later taken to Matuu level 4 Hospital
where a surgery to remove the lodged arrow was conducted.
While delivering his determination, Principal Magistrate P.
Wechuli noted that all the evidence from the 5 prosecution witnesses'
testimonies which was not contested by the accused person proves that the
accused made and attempted to murder the complainant.
“His overt act of wilfully and carefully placing an arrow on
a bow and shooting at the complainant means that he was in the process of
killing the complainant.”
“His actions do not amount to a mere preparation to commit
the offence; he had put his plans in motion before he was restrained and his
bow broken,” ruled Hon. Wechuli.
The court also found that if the accused person had not been
restrained, he would have shot another arrow, which would have led to the
complainant’s demise, since the evidence showed he was preparing to shoot a
second arrow.
The court further noted that the complainant had no personal
issue with the accused since he was just going about his work of ensuring that
the power had been restored at Kithendu village.
“The accused, on the other hand, had let his tree interfere
with the said power line, thus affecting the entire village. For him to turn
around and attack the complainant so viciously is unfortunate and barbaric, and
he deserves a deterrent sentence,” noted Hon. Wechuli.
In meting out the sentence, the court factored in the time he
spent in custody and ordered that he shall serve 20 years' imprisonment.
The case was prosecuted by Fred Kimathi and James Gachoka.
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