A robbery with violence convict has been left with regrets after a Court of Appeal in Nakuru dismissed his appeal, and instead handed him a harsher sentence – Death.

Daniel Njihia Miano was serving a 14-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of the afforementioned offence back in 2012, when he decided to initiate an appeal.

Njihia was charged with the offence of robbery with violence contrary to Section 296 (2) of the Penal Code at the Nyahururu Principal Magistrates’ court.

It was alleged that on September 11, 2010 at 4 pm at Ritaya Village, Nyandarua District, Njihia, jointly with others not before the court being armed with dangerous weapons, namely pangas and rungus, they robbed Philip Karuoya Wambugu of his mobile phone Nokia 1600 and Vodafone 125 and cash KSh2,100.

Njihia was intially sentenced to 14 years in prison, but received a death sentence upon appeal to the High Court in 2012.

On 6th March 2024, Njihia went ahead and applied to the Court of Appeal for an extension of time to file a notice of appeal.

The application was unopposed, and the Court allowed it, citing the arguable legality of the death sentence enhancement as justification for the over-11-year delay.

Court upholds death sentence

In a ruling issued on March 25, 2026,. a three-judge bench — consisting of Justices J. Mativo, M. Gachoka, and A. O. Muchelule — upheld the death sentence handed by the High Court.

The appellate court dismissed the appeal, finding that the ingredients of the offence being armed with a gun were proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Critically, the court held that the death penalty was was the “penalty provided by the law” for the offence and found no merit in overturning it.

Death sentence constitutionality

Kenya has not carried out an execution in nearly 40 years?

Despite this, the “Death Penalty” is still written into Kenya’s Penal Code (Cap. 63). It is a legal relic from 1987—the last time it was actually carried out.

In 2017, the Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in the Muruatetu Case, declaring that the mandatory death sentence for murder was unconstitutional.

This means judges now have the discretion to consider the circumstances of a case rather than to hand down a death sentence provided for in the Penal Code. Persons sentenced to death have had their sentence reduced from execution to life imprisonment.