Three individuals can now breath easy, after the high court in Busia, on Monday, reduced a life sentence that they had been slapped with to just 1 year behind bars.
The three, two adults and a teenager, were accused of robbery with violence after stealing bread, margarine and sugar.
Titus Kathukumi, Boniface Kigundi and a teenage boy named NMK, ended up with life in jail for allegedly using violence, as they made away with two loaves of bread, half a kilo of blue band margarine and one kilo of sugar, all worth Ksh 270.
High court Judge Justice Alfred Mabeya, reduced the sentence after he found out that the complainant, John Mwiti, never disclosed to the police what they had stolen from him.
Justice Mabeya sentenced charged them with assault, after evidence showed that they had beaten up their victim, then gone ahead and stole from him.
The suspects had been sentenced to life on January 29, 2019, by Chief Magistrate George Wakahiu, after a court case that had lasted six years.
In the case, Mwiti testified that on September 13, 2010, at around 7.30 pm, he was accosted by three people, one armed with a slasher while another had a stone.
The victim went on to narrate that the three snatched away a paper bag he was carrying that contained two loaves of bread,1kg of sugar and blue band.
Mwiti further told the court that the teenager who is 17-years -old, hit him with a stone on his right cheekbone while Kigundi slapped.
When he cried for help, his neighbour, Samuel Muriithi, came to his rescue but he was also beaten up.
The victim claimed he knew the three, as they were his relatives and also confessed to having withheld information from the police regarding what they had stolen from him.
