• Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were held at the Syokimau AP Post.
• AP officers Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, Leonard Mwangi and police informer Peter Ngugi have been charged with the brutal murder of the trio.
Image: FILE
Image: FILE
Police officers Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku did not book in slain lawyer Willie Kimani and two others when they were brought into the cells on the day they were murdered.
A court heard that during investigations into the disappearance of Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri, the police found out they had been held at the Syokimau AP Post but they were never booked in.
In the case, AP officers Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, Leonard Mwangi and police informer Peter Ngugi have been charged with the brutal murder of the three.
Chief Inspector Robert Owino told Justice Jessie Lessit on Tuesday that he received a missing-persons report on the three and went to the AP Post. He was the head of investigations. He said he received visitors from the International Justice Mission over the mysterious disappearance of the trio. They said they had recovered a note written on a tissue paper by one of the three missing persons. They suspected it was by Kimani.
“The note was on a tissue paper wrapped on an electrical circuit socket and was picked by two persons and taken to IPOA,” the court heard.
The note had indicated the three had been detained at the AP camp and they were asking for assistance as they feared their lives were in danger. Owino said their first move was to confirm whether the note existed and if it was by Kimani — which they did. He proceeded to Syokimau where the note had been found.
He found Cheburet and asked for the Occurrence Book but there was no entry of the three being in custody. “On June 27, 2016, we received a report from a document examiner that the note was written by Willie Kimani. This confirmed they were confined in the fabricated container.”
Owino told the court Cheburet and Wanjiku were manning the post that week and that’s how they became persons of interest.
“We arrived at a decision that the second and third were to be subjected to an investigation because they were on duty when the deceased were locked up,” the court heard.
On how Leliman was linked to the disappearance of the three, Owino said they learnt he was in charge of an undercover team as the team leader.
“During his duty, they were using a motor vehicle KBT 761T. He, however, could replace the number plate with another number plate, KBF 876E,” he said.
During one of the operations, Leliman allegedly shot Mwenda in the arm and later charged him with possession of bhang, gambling in public and resisting arrest.
Mwenda felt he was unfairly implicated and sought IPOA’s help.
Owino also said that on December 13, 2015, Leliman arrested Mwenda for a traffic offence and he was charged with riding an uninsured motorcycle, operating without a reflective jacket and carrying an uninsured passenger. On February 16, 2016, he brought another case against Mwenda of robbery with violence, but the case died for lack of evidence. Mwenda’s lawyer Edward Mbanya demanded evidence and he was realised when they could not produce any evidence.
“Based on the information, I came to the conclusion that Leliman was a person of interest and had to be subjected to investigations,” Owino told the court.
Owing to the information they had gathered, on July 1, 2016, he summoned Leliman, Cheburet and Wanjiku for interrogation.
He said Leliman had inconsistencies in his information and that prompted him to arrest him. They recovered police pocket phone 35903304, pistol KEKP45302156, which had three magazines, 45 bullets and two mobile phones from him.
“I also arrested Cheburet and Wanjiku who were manning the station, because there was a conspiracy,” Owino added.
The court further heard that on the day of the arrest, the investigators received information that some two bodies were retrieved from Athi River and taken to the City Mortuary. The two were that of Kimani and Muiruri. They also received reports that another body had been sighted at the same spot and retrieved. It was that if Josphat Mwenda.
“At this juncture, we were convinced we were dealing with a case of planned murder of the deceased persons,” Owino said.
On July 5, 2016, they went to an isolated farm in Mlolongo town called Soweto, which belonged to a man called Njoroge and his wife Agnes Wanyua.
“We interviewed several witnesses, including officer PC Kitambo, the wife of mzee Njoroge and some others."
At the place believed to be the scene of the crime, they recovered cigarette butt, a Dasani water bottle, two cans of shark drink, an empty Redbull tin and human faeces.
"We decided to investigate the entire team, including Mwangi, as they were working alongside Leliman, who was their boss," the officer told court.
"On August 8, 2016, Inspector Mwangi and Corporal Olesena arrested Ngugi at Waithaka and brought him to the office. He volunteered to tell us what had happened. I told the inspector to look for a chief inspector who could have his confession statement done as stipulated by law. He identified Kinyua, who took the statement."
(Edited by F'Orieny)