The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has urged the Supreme Court to reject an appeal by former Venezuelan Embassy official Dwight Sagaray and uphold his 20-year prison sentence for the murder of Olga Fonseca Jimenez in Nairobi in July 2012.
In written submissions filed in Supreme Court Petition No. E030 of 2026, the prosecution opposed Sagaray’s challenge to a Court of Appeal decision delivered on March 7, 2025, which affirmed his conviction and sentence. Sagaray filed the petition on August 7, 2026, arguing that Kenyan courts lacked jurisdiction to try him because Venezuela had not expressly waived his diplomatic immunity.
The DPP, however, maintained that communications from Venezuelan authorities terminating Sagaray’s diplomatic mission and cancelling his diplomatic passport brought his diplomatic functions to an end. The prosecution further argued that any immunity remaining after the termination of his mission did not shield him from prosecution for acts outside his official diplomatic duties.
The prosecution also defended the evidential basis of the conviction, arguing that it was not founded solely on alleged motive or Sagaray’s association with another individual, but on the combined weight of circumstantial evidence evaluated by the trial court and the Court of Appeal.
Among the evidence cited were a dispute over control of the Venezuelan Embassy, Sagaray’s relationship with Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Hassan, and circumstances surrounding Fonseca’s killing. The DPP submitted that circumstantial evidence can sustain a conviction where the facts, considered collectively, establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt and exclude reasonable alternative explanations.
Sagaray has challenged that assessment, arguing that the courts relied on alleged motive, perceived benefit and his association with Hassan rather than sufficient evidence directly linking him to the murder. The Supreme Court Deputy Registrar has directed that the petition be placed before the Deputy Chief Justice for the empanelment of a bench and further directions.
The Supreme Court is yet to determine the appeal.
