A GSU officer entered a bar in Kisii town while armed with a pistol and started swearing in Ekegusii that “I will kill someone … I will kill someone with a gun ….”
Shortly after, he shot dead an attendant who was demanding payment for his drinks and food. The tragedy happened on April 11, 2019.
Josephat Mauti will serve his prison term after the Court of Appeal upheld a High Court verdict that his intentional killing of an innocent man was inexcusable.
“This was a needless, cruel and heartless crime by an officer of many years’ standing. From the nature of the injuries sustained by the deceased, it is clear that the appellant did inflict them with malice aforethought and that his conviction for murder was merited,” the decision dated April 4, 2025 reads.
Mauti had denied the shooting, despite the testimony of his colleagues that he confessed to killing someone in a bar.
The officer in charge of the armoury at the police station where Mauti worked, Corporal Ezekiel Kiomi, testified that Mauti informed him he had killed a person.
He took the rifle, disabled the magazine and counted 29 bullets. He had issued the officer with 30 rounds of ammunition earlier that evening.
Placed on his defence, Mauti testified that he reported to the station at 6 pm. While still in uniform, he left work carrying his rifle and at about 10 pm he went to eat at the bar. He stood up and heard the blast of a gunshot.
He immediately ran out and people started chasing him, so he fled to the police station for safety.
He met a colleague at the report office and explained to him that he had fired one bullet but could not tell how the bullet was discharged. He handed over the gun and was immediately arrested.
He further testified that since being enlisted with the General Service Unit of the Police Service in 2002, he had served without any blemish on his record and did not have any quarrel with anyone or any problem with members of the public in the area.
The High Court found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to 20 years in prison in July 2019.
On appeal, he raised various grounds, including that malice aforethought had not be established. But the three judges of appeal said evidence was not on his side. They also said the sentence was appropriate.
“Taking into consideration the sentence meted out on the appellant against the facts of the case, the facts show that the deceased, an innocent unarmed worker, was shot at close range and suffered multiple organ injuries leading to his death.”
