Venezuelan diplomat jailed in Kenya for 20 years for envoy’s murder

NAIROBI (Reuters): A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced a former top Venezuelan diplomat to 20 years in jail over the 2012 murder of the Latin American nation’s acting ambassador at her home in an upmarket Nairobi neighbourhood.

Dwight Sagaray, who was the first secretary at the embassy, was convicted, along with three Kenyan nationals, in January this year of killing Olga Fonseca.

Judge Roselyn Korir sentenced all four men to 20 years in jail. The term starts in January.

Sagaray could be tried for the murder because he was stripped of diplomatic immunity following the crime, the court ruled in January.

Fonseca was found strangled in her bedroom less than two weeks into her posting to Nairobi, which followed the abrupt departure of the previous ambassador after he was accused by his domestic staff of sexual harassment.

Sagaray, who had been heading the mission before the arrival of Fonseca, was angered by her presence, as he wanted to continue overseeing the embassy, the court found in January.

A fifth accused person, Kipng’eno Kirui Chelogoi, was acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence linking him to the other suspects or the crime scene, Korir said.

Another suspect was still at large. The court said his arrest warrant should remain in force.