The building in Moshi that houses the NBC Moshi branch, which was robbed of Sh5.3 billion in 2004. Six people were yesterday jailed for 32 years each for the crime.
Moshi. Five Kenyans and a Tanzanian were yesterday jailed for 32 years each for robbing a bank in Moshi ten years ago.
The Moshi Resident Magistrate’s Court found the six guilty of robbing the Moshi branch of the National Bank of Commerce (NBC) of Sh5.3 billion on May 21, 2004.
Those jailed include Jumanne Kilongola, a Tanzanian bishop with the Christian Fellowship Assemblies of God.
Principal Resident Magistrate Simon Kobelo acquitted three other Kenyans – Boniface Mwangi Mburu, David Ngugi Mburu and Michael Mbanya Wathigo – for lack of incriminating evidence.
Mr Kobelo said the prosecution had proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the six convicted men carried out the robbery, adding that they were all positively identified by several prosecution witnesses during their trial.
He sentenced each of the robbers to 30 years in jail for armed robbery and handed each a two-year jail term for conspiring to commit a crime.
Mr Kobelo, who delivered judgment under tight security, said the court concurred with the prosecution that the money grabbed from the bank was loaded into a vehicle hired by Kilongola.
The preacher-turned robber had hired the vehicle on the pretext of using it to carry members of his church’s choir.
The six men were found in possession of $39,000 (Sh64 million) when they were arrested. Mr Kobelo ordered that the money be surrendered to the NBC.
Sh126.2 million of the loot carted off during the raid belonged to NBC, while Sh5.1 billion belonged to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), which was using the NBC Moshi branch as its regional centre.
Yesterday’s verdict pushed to 12 the number of people jailed for the robbery.
Tanzanians Jackson ole Nametemi, Benjamin Dia, Kelvin Dia and Raphael Kalaghe were jailed for 30 years each in December 2006, while Eveline Mlaki and Happy Memei each received a three-year jail term.
Mlaki and Memei have served their sentences. The other four convicts challenged the verdict at the High Court, where their appeal has been pending for over seven years.
Three other men who allegedly took part in the robbery fled the country, and efforts to bring them to justice have so far failed.
The suspects are Ugandan nationals Charles Lumago and Shaaban Wayabona and Kenyan Patrick Ingoi.
The Citizen
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