Thursday October 20, 2022
By BRUHAN MAKONG
The Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions said Wednesday the postponement was occasioned by the transfer of the judge who presided over the case.
Five suspects were initially charged with the attack, but one was acquitted for lack of evidence. /CFM-FILE.
NAIROBI, Kenya –The High Court has postponed the delivery of a judgment in an appeal filed by Garissa University terrorist attack convicts.
Two convicts, Hassan Edin Hassan, Mohammed Abdi Abikar were sentenced to serve 41 years imprisonment while another convict, a Tanzanian named Rashid Mberesero (deceased) was handed life imprisonment.
They were sentenced in 2019 for their role in the 2015 attack that resulted in the death of 148 persons, majority of whom were students.
The Tanzanian national was found guilty of aiding the terrorist attack on Garissa University, one of the major attacks staged by the Somalia-based terrorist outfit Al-Shabaab on Kenyan soil.
The Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions said Wednesday the postponement was occasioned by the transfer of the judge who presided over the case.
“In a Notice published on the Judiciary website, the Judiciary stated that the Lady Justice Githua had been transferred and all pending judgments before her will be delivered on notice,” ODPP said.
During the appeal hearing in July 2022, ODPP urged the High Court to uphold their conviction and sentence, arguing that it was justified in light of their horrific actions.
Rashid Mberesero and two others were convicted on June 19 2019 by Milimani Magistrate Francis Andayi.
While passing the sentence, Magistrate Andayi said he had considered the many lives of students lost during the attack who were helpless, innocent and vulnerable.
“In this case, many lives were lost and members of the public left in a panic. Having considered their mitigation there is no person in the world who does not know the devastating effects of terror activities,” he said.
Sahal Diriy alias Sahali Diriye Hussein, who was charged jointly with the three, was acquitted.
Magistrate Andayi said the prosecution which relied on circumstantial evidence had presented a strong case against the three suspects found guilty of the April 2, 2015 dawn attack that devastated the nation.
“The court finds that they knew the plot and were part of the attackers as they were arrested while traveling from Garissa two days after the attack,” Andayi said when he delivered his ruling on June 19, 2019.
The court rejected the defense’s argument that they could not have been co-conspirators yet they do not know each other.
“It is not necessary for them to know each other as they could have met through a third party,” he added.
Mberesero, the Tanzanian, was acquitted the charge of being unlawfully present in the country but the court wondered why, no official from the University testified in court to confirm whether he was a student.
This is after it emerged during trial that on the day of the attack – April 2, 2015 – he remained in the hostel and could not satisfactorily explain why he was there.
“I find it intriguing that no official from the university came to testify in this matter,” he said.