Africa-Press – Tanzania. THREE people have been removed from death row for allegedly killing a police officer, Police Constable (PC) Mwinyi, by shooting him with a gun in 2013 at TAZARA Mchicha area within Ilala District, Dar es Salaam Region.
This followed the decision of the Court of Appeal to allow the appeal in which the trio, the appellants, had lodged to challenge both conviction of murder and the death sentence imposed on them by the High Court.
Justices Rehema Mkuye, Mwanaisha Kwariko and Paul Kihwelo found that the guilty of Mawazo Nyoni, alias Pengo, Telas Ndagijimana and Kenyata Peter, alias Mzee Mwenzangu, was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
“We allow the appeal, quash the convictions and set aside the sentences of death and direct the appellants’ immediate release from custody forthwith unless held for other lawful cause,” they declared.
When determining the appeal, the justices noted that the evidence of identification produced by prosecution witnesses was not watertight and free from any possibility of mistaken identity.
They also expunged from the record the cautioned statements of the appellants, who had allegedly admitted to the crime, for being irregularly admitted, thus rendering the remaining evidence on record so skeletal to warrant their conviction.
“Even if we assume, for the sake of arguments, that the cautioned statements were not expunged from the record, the same were repudiated and retracted (by the appellants) and there is no any evidence on record to corroborate them,” the justices said.
They noted further that the prosecution did not tender the car, Carina of make, which was allegedly used by the appellants in the commission of the offence despite the fact that there was evidence on record that it was in the custody of the police at Chang’ombe Police Station.
According to the justices, it defies logic and common sense as to why did the prosecution elect not to produce in evidence the car which was alleged to be used by the attackers more in particular considering some descriptions offered by the prosecution’s witnesses such as tinted window glasses.
“In our considered opinion, production of the car in evidence before the court would have landed more credence to the prosecution’s evidence. This failure raises more questions than answers as to why the prosecution did not find the need to tender the carina,” they said.
On February 11, 2013, one Station Sergeant of police was in charge of the Crisis Response Team (CRT) from Chang’ombe Police Station, which was christened Tembo 16. He left the station to TAZARA Mchicha area along Kiwalani road at 11:00 am together with seven police officers.
The team was using a Landrover Defender and at that time they were on routine patrol. As a police routine they had with them radio call and were armed with two Sub-Machine Guns (SMG) and two Long range weapons. They also had a box of tear gas canisters (bombs).
Upon arrival at TAZARA they parked their car on the left side of the road and began conducting routine and random questioning of drivers and motorcyclists that were passing through that road. Such exercise was specifically carried out by the deceased, who was unarmed.
The exercise went on for about three hours until two cars appeared coming from Nyerere Road heading the way to Kiwalani on the rough road towards where the CRT unit was. The first car was Toyota carina grey in colour and the other one behind was Noah.
The car was moving at a high speed with full lights on and unaware of what was going to happen next, the deceased who was on the left side of the road by then stopped the car, but the driver only slowed down.
There and then, one of the passengers in the carina suddenly started shooting randomly at the police. As a result of such a gruesome incident, the deceased was shot right in the head and fell down while his brain got out.
Two other police officers were shot, one in his hand and a thigh and the other was shot too but not seriously injured. The incident did not take long and the deceased was pronounced dead upon arrival at Temeke hospital where they were rushed for treatment.
The assailants disappeared at the scene thereafter. The police launched investigations as well as the manhunt of the attackers which led to the discovery of an abandoned carina. The appellants were subsequently arrested at different times and charged with the capital offence of murder.
