After six years of waiting, the High Court has finally delivered its verdict on the murder of Lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and driver Joseph Muiruri who were abducted and brutally murdered in June 2016.
Lady Justice Jessie Lessit ruled that four – three police officers; Fredrick ole Leliman, Stephen Cheburet Morogo, Sylvia Wanjohi and their informant Peter Ngugi are all guilty of murder.One of the accused persons, police officer Leonard Maina was acquitted of the charges.Justice Lessit ruled that the 3rd accused person, Sylvia Wanjohi, was at the Syokimau Police Post from 9am to past 7pm when the three deceased persons were alive in the cells.”
The burden shifted to the 3rd accused to explain how the deceased were held at the post while she was on duty without entry to the OB, how they were placed in the cells and later removed while she had custody of the keys to the cells. Instead of explaining these facts she decided to deny and mislead,” noted Lessit.
For the second (Stephen Morogo) and fifth accused (Peter Ngugi), the court ruled that they were principal offenders for taking an active role in the kidnapping of the deceased, concealing their missing vehicle, detaining them without their disclosure and ferrying them to their murder scene.”
The 5th accused in his statement said in his confession that state that when they drove the deceased to Soweto open the co-conspirators argued for 3 hours whether to kill the deceased or not before they finally took their lives. The fact that they argued does not reduce their action to anything less than murder,” noted Justice Lessit.The court ruled that Fredrick ole Leliman was the bearer of the motive to murder the three based on police radio tracking evidence.
The prosecution produced in court 46 witnesses to testify against the accused persons who in their defence brought forth 36 witnesses to defend them from the charges.Lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Mwenda and the taxi driver were abducted after leaving Mavoko Law Courts in Machakos County on June 23, 2016.
They were leaving a court session in Mavoko where Mwenda had filed a case against a police officer.The three were bundled into a vehicle and taken to Syokimau Police Post where they were locked up before they were later smuggled out and driven to a location where they were brutally murdered.
Their bodies were stashed in sacks and transported to a river in Ol Donyo Sabuk where they were dumped only to be recovered a week later on June 30 and July 1, 2016.The murder of three triggered a countrywide uproar with lawyers in the country embarking on a protest against extrajudicial killings.
