Two pastors charged with violently robbing their landlord in Karen
By Joseph NdundaTwo pastors are facing robbery with violence charges after allegedly robbing their landlord of Sh370,000 and a wrist watch valued at Sh25,000.
The two clergymen are said to have committed the crime following a dispute over rent after the landlord leased them a parcel of land that allegedly did not belong to him for a year.
Benson Muiruri Mucheru of House of Encounter Chapel and Joseph Zacharia Iyadi of African Transformers Youth Association are accused of robbing Geoffrey Ngatia Njoroge of the items inside his home in Karen, Nairobi on March 2, 2018.
They are said to have committed the robbery jointly with others not before the court and threatened to use violence against Njoroge during the incident.
The alleged robbery is said to have happened inside Njoroge’s compound, which he shares with the two pastors’ churches based on the lease.
But they discovered they had been paying rent to the wrong person after they were served with a notice for rent arrears of 12 months by an organisation that claimed ownership of the property.
The complainant had been dropped home by a friend at around 11pm when the pastors and their associates confronted him as he alighted at the rear door of his house.
They took him inside his house to discuss the money and commotion allegedly ensued during which Njoroge claimed to have been robbed of the cash collected during a fundraiser at a hotel in Nairobi CBD.
The two clerics denied committing the capital offence before senior resident magistrate Charles Mwaniki of Kibera law courts and were freed on a Sh600,000 bond each with a surety of a similar amount.
The case will be mentioned on January 11.