Death Sentence for Cell Phone Thieves

A Kenyan court has sentenced two men to death by hanging after they were found guilty of stealing a mobile phone. John King'ori Wachira, alias Manga, and John Maina Mwangi, alias Blackie were found guilty last week of breaking into a home, terrorizing the owner and stealing a mobile phone and about US$7 in cash. They were armed with a toy pistol and some other crude weapons.

Following a tip off, local police raided the house where the suspects lived and recovered the cell phone.

The magistrate said during sentencing that the law did not offer an alternative sentence for violent robbery.

There hasn't been a death sentence carried out in Kenya since 1987 when 12 failed coup leaders were hung.

The sentence could be commuted to live imprisonment, as the current Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki commuted 195 death sentences to life imprisonment following his election victory last December."

Posted to the site on 18th August 2003