The Githurai matatu crew, who sexually assaulted a woman in a bus in 2014, have been sentenced to death.

In a ruling by Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi, the three matatu operators – bus driver Nicholas Mwangi, conductor Meshack Mwangi and petrol station attendant Edward Mwangi – were found guilty of robbery with violence.

The three were arrested in 2014 following a public outcry after a clip of the ordeal went viral, had initially been charged with sexual assault before additional charges of robbery with violence, a capital offence, were added to the charge sheet.

A capital offence in Kenya carries a mandatory death sentence.

The two suspects were charged with violently robbing the victim, identified only by her initials H.E.W, of her personal effects valued at Sh41, 700 before they sexually assaulted her on September 19 at Millennium petrol station in Githurai 44 together with others, not before the court.

As witnessed in the recorded clip, the victim had been forcefully grounded on a section of the bus by a group of men, who sexually molested her and even threatened to insert a bottle in her genitals.