• Witness says he met the accused at a meeting called by one of them, drove them around Nairobi.
• He says an accused, a former colleague, requested him to take him to South C where he would be shown a friend who had conned him out of money.
The case in which a businessman and a woman were charged with the attempted murder of former Garissa Finance executive Mukhtar Idris has been adjourned until January 31.
Trial magistrate Francis Andayi adjourned the case after the first witness, military intelligent XYZ* completed his evidence in the case.
He said he had earlier met the key suspect–David Mwai– who allegedly committed suicide at the Parklands police station, in a meeting called by one of the accused persons Mohamud Aden.
XYZ told the court he identified Mwai's image in the media as the man he met with Aden before the alleged attempted murder.
The witness said he also met Juliet Njoki who is co-accused with Aden at the meeting.
Aden and Njoki have denied attempting to kill Idris last year on May 19 at his Kileleshwa residence in Nairobi.
They have also denied another charge of conspiring to kill lawyer Charles Kanjama, an offence they allegedly committed last year between July 1 and September 27 in Nairobi.
During the hearing, XYZ recounted how he drove Aden and Njoki to different places in Nairobi after meeting them at the Blue Hut Hotel in Ngara last year on July 14.
He drove them to South C alongside two men. On their way back, he dropped the two men near City Stadium. The duo included Mwai who was allegedly hired to commit the crime.
Idris was shot twice in the head outside a mosque.
XYZ informed the court that Aden, a former workmate at the Kenya Army, requested him to take him to the South C shopping centre where one of the two gentlemen would show him a friend who had conned him out of money.
Upon arrival at the centre, they did not find the alleged conman and later returned to the Ngara hotel before proceeding to Blacky’s Restaurant in Kilimani.
During investigations, the police arrested several people among them Garissa Governor Ali Korane and his brother, after they were mentioned by witnesses as having hired the hit squad.
The governor, his brother and the others were released, a move the victim's family opposed.
The family linked Idris's tribulations to his decision to question the governor's educational qualifications. But Korane denied any wrongdoing.
According to the prosecution, the accused persons, jointly with others not before the court, attempted to kill Idris by shooting and injuring him at the White Star Restaurant along Kandara Road in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
The former county minister was immediately admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at a Nairobi hospital for some time before he was transferred to India.
Mwai, before his mysterious death, had allegedly confessed to the police that the initial plan was to kidnap and poison Idris but he took too long and instead was ordered to shoot to kill.
The police say hydrogen peroxide, which was to be used, induces a heart attack or stroke. Mwai allegedly said he was approached by a former schoolmate, identified as Njoki, who told him a friend wanted a man dead. The pay was to be Sh500,000.
He allegedly told the police that Njoki said her friend had been conned out of Sh500,000 and his sister Sh6 million by the same person. It was then that they began plotting how to eliminate Idris.
Edited by R.Wamochie