BY PHOEBE WANJOHI.
A businessman executed about three years ago over Sh72 million heist at Standard Chartered bank in Nairobi pleaded with police officers not to kill him.
Dorcas Wamaitha, the wife of Vincent Oduor claimed that the businessman pleaded with the police officers to spare his life.
She further told Justice Mugure Thande that her husband was shot dead while handcuffed on March 24, 2020 at Kayole junction.
She said that she was called by her friend some day who informed her that husband had been killed by police officers while he pleaded for his life.
“I was informed that my husband pleaded with the officers in Luo language,” Wamaitha told the court.
She said when she arrived at the scene and found the body had been already removed to City Mortuary.
Wamaitha was testifying in a case in which the six officers namely Inspector James Ingige, Corporals Joseph Ojode Obambo, Vincent Odiambo and contables Charles Kirimi, Bashir Ali and Henry Mutai have denied murdering Oduor at Kayole junction in Nairobi.
The witness was put on task by lawyer Danstan Omari, who is leading the defence team to see if she knew her husband was a dangerous criminal wanted by the police. Wamaitha denied having seen her husband with a gun.
But she admitted that he had been charged in court with theft of Sh 72 million.
In cross examination by defence lawyer Omari the witness denied the late Vincent did not own a gun or had knife as pictures taken by police showed.
He admitted that her late husband was charged with with offence of stealing Ksh 72 million which was on transit by G4S courier in Kikuyu branch.
She said that the husband was arrested in kendu-bay sub-county allegedly with Ksh 3 million in his possession saying she never saw the money.
The officers were arrested after the Directorate of Public Prosecutions recommended that they face the murder charges.
This was after the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) completed investigation into the alleged extrajudicial cases and enforced disappearance in Kayole and Eastlands.
The late Oduor was killed a few months after being released on bond by a Nairobi court. This was soon after denying charges of robbery with violence alongside five others.
It is said that the incident happened when he alongside two others reportedly engaged police officers (who were responding to a distress call) in a shootout in Kayole.
The gang is said to have defied orders to surrender instead, engaging the officers in a fiery shootout that left the suspect dead. His accomplices escaped in a motorbike
At the time, the deceased was out on bond after he was charged with the bank heist in which he and others posing as police officers in escort duties robbed G4S personnel of the amount in Nairobi West.
The G4S team had collected the cash at around 6am and transported it to the bank when they were attacked by the thugs who offloaded the money onto a Toyota Noah and fled the scene.
