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Wheelchair-bound man admits killing fellow street dweller in Nairobi
Joseph Ochieng alias Kamduru at the Milimani Law Courts where he was charged with killing a street urchin on December 5, 2025, along Gaberone Road in Nairobi.
A man living with a disability on the streets of Nairobi has admitted before a Milimani court that he killed a fellow street dweller last December.
Joseph Ochieng, also known as Kamduru, 59, pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter contrary to Section 202 as read with Section 205 of the Penal Code.
Ochieng admitted that on the night of December 5, 2025, along Gaberone Road in Nairobi County, he unlawfully killed an unknown adult male.
When the charge was read to him, he pleaded guilty and asked the court for leniency, explaining that he struck the deceased with a piece of wood.
“Your Honour, I was sleeping on my wheelchair at a veranda along Luthuli-Mfangano Street when I was hit on the head by someone,” Ochieng told the court.
He said he had been fast asleep, covered with a piece of cloth, when the attack occurred. He said he uncovered himself and saw a man armed with a piece of wood, preparing to attack him again.
“Being a person living with a disability and permanently on a wheelchair, I thought my end had come. I wheeled myself towards my attacker, grabbed the piece of wood from him, and hit him on the head with force in a fit of anger,” he said.
Ochieng told the court that the man fell, hit his head on the tarmac and “never woke up again”.
He said he later approached the victim, whom he described as a fellow street dweller, and found him motionless and bleeding heavily.
He pleaded for mercy, telling the court that he is unmarried and has no family.
Joseph Ochieng pleaded guilty and asked the court for leniency, explaining that he struck the deceased with a piece of wood.
A prosecutor told the court that police officers on patrol found the body and arrested Ochieng at the scene.
The court heard that the deceased’s fingerprints were taken to the National Registration Bureau for identification, but no match was found.
The trial magistrate Geoffrey Onsaringo convicted Ochieng on his own plea of guilt and ordered a pre-sentencing report before issuing a sentence.
He was remanded in custody until April 29, 2026, when he will be sentenced.
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