Kilifi Law Courts Principal Magistrate Ivy Wasike sentenced Victor Otieno to 40 years in prison on Friday. She convicted him of four counts of robbery with violence and one count of impersonating a police officer. He received 30 years on each robbery count, with the terms running concurrently. He got another 10 years for impersonation, to be served consecutively.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Otieno and an accomplice carried out the robberies in Malindi and Kilifi towns between November 15, 2024 and March 26, 2025. The ODPP said the pair knocked on doors and claimed to be conducting police operations. Once inside, they held occupants at gunpoint and ransacked the homes. The court heard they took phones, laptops, TVs, gold chains, rings and PlayStations worth about KSh 4 million.
The prosecution called nine witnesses. Some attacks happened in broad daylight, at 10am, noon and 1pm, The Star reported. One victim told the court that Otieno pointed a gun at her daughter. Another said he was pushed around and threatened with death unless he cooperated.
Otieno said he had been wrongly identified. He told the court he was in Migori for his grandmother's burial at the time. The magistrate rejected both claims. Several victims had picked him out at identification parades. He also called no witness and showed no bus ticket to back up his alibi.
She also dismissed his story that he was accidentally shot in the leg at Kilifi Bridge on March 26, 2025, while dropping off a passenger. The court found that police had set an ambush after a reported robbery in Malindi. He was arrested after an exchange of gunfire on a busy highway.
The ODPP said the accomplice kept robbing people in Likoni after Otieno's arrest. Police later tracked him to Mariakani and recovered a pistol and another handgun. He was shot dead when he tried to escape from Likoni Police Station.
Wasike said the robberies were carried out in a particularly heinous manner and left victims traumatised. Some were too distressed to come back to court and testify, she said. She ordered probation and aftercare officers to help victims and their families get professional psychosocial support.
Otieno is already serving a separate 30-year sentence in a similar robbery with violence case at the Malindi Law Courts, following a plea bargain. He has 14 days to appeal against the conviction and sentence.