NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 28 — The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Moses Kamau Ngigi, who was convicted of two counts of robbery with violence and sentenced to death, despite procedural delays caused by the retirement of one of the original judges who heard the case.Ngigi’s appeal had first been heard in February 2022 by Justices Roselyn Nambuye, Fatuma Sichale, and Sankale Kantai, but the judgment could not be delivered after Justice Nambuye retired and the remaining judges failed to agree on a verdict. This prompted a rehearing before Justices Patrick Kiage, Jamila Mohammed, and Weldon Korir.“This explains why the appeal was listed afresh for hearing before us,” the bench noted.Ngigi was convicted for participating in a violent robbery on April 23, 2008, where six men accosted businesswoman Prisca Njeri Gitau and her watchman in Kawaida, Kiambu County, stealing cash, household items, and a bicycle. Police on patrol later arrested Ngigi and recovered a Sanyo television set, a gas cylinder, and other stolen property from his house.‘Recent possession’The High Court previously upheld his conviction, relying on the doctrine of recent possession to link him to the robbery.In his second appeal, Ngigi argued that the identification evidence was unreliable, that the doctrine of recent possession was improperly applied, and that the charge sheet was defective because of a discrepancy in the description of a stolen phone model.However, the appellate judges ruled that the misdescription of one of the four stolen items did not invalidate the conviction.“The defect did not occasion a miscarriage of justice to the appellant. Exclusion of the mobile phone still left other items unaccounted for, and the appellant was correctly convicted in respect of those other items,” the bench stated.The court also found that the doctrine of recent possession was properly applied since Ngigi failed to give a satisfactory explanation for being found with items stolen barely an hour before his arrest.“The appellant was in law duty bound to offer a reasonable explanation as to how he came to be in possession of the items, otherwise than as the thief or guilty receiver,” the judges held.The bench further ruled that the robbery met all the ingredients under Section 296(2) of the Penal Code, noting that the attackers were armed, acted in a group, and used threats of violence.“In short, the appeal against conviction is without merit and is hereby dismissed,” the judges concluded, leaving the death sentence intact.