A 23-year-old man was sentenced to serve three years in prison by an Eldoret court after pleading guilty to assaulting another man for eloping with his 17-year-old girlfriend.
Emanuel Sidani, who was arraigned before Eldoret Senior Principal Magistrate Richard Odenyo confessed before court that he engaged the complainant, Ezekiel Aluvale in a fight after being tipped off that Aluvale was behind the disappearance of his girlfriend.
The court heard that on May 17,2023 at Kambi Mawe village in Tapsagoi location within Turbo Sub County, the accused willfully and unlawfully assaulted the complainant, thereby occassioning him actual bodily harm contrary to section 251 of the penal code.
The prosecution through Ms. Gladys Kenei, told the court that the accused stormed into the house of the complainant where he found him having a good time with the alleged girlfriend, which angered the accused.
The accused told the court that upon noticing that his girlfriend who had gone missing for several days was in the house of the complainant, he attacked him and hit him with a blunt object.
The court further heard that during the incident, the accused destroyed a television set belonging to the complainant.
The complainant was critically injured and was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral hospital in Eldoret where he was admitted for almost two months while undergoing treatment.
The accused faced a second charge of malicious damage to property, however, the charge was withdrewn by the prosecution having been found to be defective.
In mitigation, the accused told the court that he was overwhelmed with anger and jealousy upon realizing that someone had eloped with a woman that he loved very much. “It was out of emotions that I did what I did, I beg this court to forgive me,” he pleaded.
While delivering the sentence, the Magistrate said that the action of the accused was full of arrogance bearing in mind that he attacked the complainant in his house hence deserved a harsh sentence to serve as a lesson to other young people with such behaviour, and handed him the three-year jail term.
He was however granted 14 days of appeal.
By Kiptanui Cherono
