15 villagers on trial over grisly murder of chief

Fifteen people were on Monday charged with the murder of an assistant chief. Dionisio Kibore was killed, his body hacked to pieces and tossed into a river in Mbeere South district on June 19 at Kamutuanjiru Village Mavuria . The suspects were presented before Embu resident judge Justice Hedwig Ongu’di and denied the charges. Dionisio was allegedly killed at around 9.30pm as he was returning home from a peace-building baraza he had convened.

The head, torso and a leg were recovered, the hands and a leg have not been traced. Fifteen lawyers have been hired by the state to defend them. Ongu’di instructed that the accused be remanded at the Embu Prison. Hearing was set for December 10 and 11. The court was filled withe friends and relatives of the accused. Two other suspects were lynched by villagers when they refused to cooperate with police who had arrested them.

The chief was buried two weeks after his murder in a ceremony that was attended by thousands of residents, area MP and presidential aspirant Mutava Musyimi and DC Loyford Kibara. The fifteen are: Dionisio Gitonga, Amos Mwaniki, Njiru Ngiri, Patrick Nduma, James Muriithi,Pauline Ndegi, Peter Ngari, Peter Munyi, Gerald Muriithi, Stephen Njeru, Charles Kinyua, Duncan Njiru, Fredrick Murage, Peter Njiru, and Mwangangi Mbeu. Ends…