lawyer Willie Kimani
lawyer Willie Kimani.

 

A police officer involved in the murder of lawyer Willie Kimani faces life imprisonment.


Justice Jessie Lesiit gave Fredrick Leliman the death penalty on Friday, February 3. Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, and Peter Ngugi were each sentenced to 30, 24, and 30 years in prison, respectively.


On July 22, 2022, the cops were convicted for the murders of Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda, and the taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.


Leonard Mwangi, one of the cops, was exonerated when the court decided there wasn't enough evidence to connect him to the murder.


They were charged in 2016.


On June 23, 2016, the deceased were abducted after leaving Mavoko Law Courts. A few days after going missing, their remains were discovered in the Ol Donyo Sabuk River.

 


The court found them guilty after finding that the prosecution had shown that they had a similar motive to injure the lawyer, his client, and their taxi driver.


The court found Leliman guilty and said that he had a reason for wanting to murder Mwenda since he had filed a complaint against him with the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).


The court found that Leliman chose Mwenda because he wanted to keep his position safe.


The judge claims that the lawyer and the taxi driver were murdered to hide Mwenda's killing.


The court said that police officer Wanjiku was the main culprit because she didn't write down that three people had died in the Occurrence Book (OB) even though she knew they were in the cells.


She worked at the station from 9 a.m. until about 7 p.m., when the three were in the cells. She was the main offender since she was running the OB and had the desk while denying information about the occurrence.


Justice Lesiit said, "They were kept at the station without OB entrance, and rather than clarifying, they chose to deny."


She said that in order to reach her conclusion, she considered all 117 exhibits as well as the testimony of 34 defense witnesses and 46 prosecution witnesses.


The judge informed the court that the case was the largest file of her career and that she had written more than 6,000 pages of proceedings since the trial began.


Ngugi, who was also found guilty, told the court how the murder was planned and done.


The decision from Justice Lesiit said, "The testimony is overwhelming. They were murdered. Bodies were dropped into the river to make it harder to collect them. His evidence is absurd, and I reject it in its entirety."



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