HE final moments of former Embakasi MP Melitus Were, who was killed six years ago, can now be told.
The 39-year-old MP had just pulled up at his gate after midnight and was waiting for it to be opened when three gunmen accosted him.
Before he could call for help, the gunmen grabbed his wallet and phone and shot him twice in the chest and fled.
A few minutes later, his wife and guard found him in a pool of blood.
Efforts to resuscitate him at the Nairobi Hospital failed and he died shortly after arrival at the hospital.
Yesterday, High Court judge Luka Kimaru ruled that the prosecution had proved that James Odera, Wycliffe Walibwa and Paul Otieno robbed and killed the first-time MP on January 29, 2008.
“Death is the only sentence provided by law for the offence of murder and I hereby sentence the three accused persons in the manner provided in law,” the judge ruled.
Kimaru said evidence, including two pistols recovered from the three, fingerprints, and DNA samples taken from the accused, had proved that the three came into contact with the former MP before his death.
Justice Kimaru, however, freed Mary Wamaitha, Otieno’s girlfriend, who was arrested alongside the three, for lack of evidence.
He said there was no evidence connecting the woman with the killing.
The MP was murdered outside his home in Woodley Estate, Nairobi, a week after he was elected to Parliament.
His killing coincided with the violence following the 2007 disputed presidential election.
Then, opposition supporters led by Raila Odinga condemned the murder, terming it a political assassination intended to intimidate their call for mass action challenging the election of President Mwai Kibaki.
Justice Kimaru said evidence of ballistics experts established that the cartridges recovered at the scene came from a pistol recovered in Otieno’s house.