Nairobi, March 13 -- In the end, it all boiled down to manner, consequence and character as Justice Grace Nzioka sent Joseph Irungu, alias Jowie, to the gallows for the murder of businesswoman Monicah Kimani in her Nairobi flat six years ago.

The three issues that sounded simple and inconsequential as the judge read them out in court, but which, in the end, determined the fate of a man who caught the attention of the country six years ago with his bluster, arrogance and haughtiness, were the manner in which he killed his victim, the consequences of his actions, and his character as, first, a human being and, second, a member of society.

He sat pensively in the dock, a blue cotton mask covering a large part of his face, such that it was ...