One of the five people charged with the murder of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani yesterday told the High Court that police officers had promised to put him under witness protection.
Peter Ngugi, a former police informer and a clothes hawker in Mlolongo and Athi River, said police had since 2009 been paying him for information.
He said police told him they were preparing a safe house for him. That was why he agreed to sign an alleged confession written in English, a language he did not understand since he is a Class Four dropout, he said.
“Your honour, just the other day the police officer was still telling me that they only have 20 per cent remaining on the project to make me a prosecution witness,” Ngugi said.
He was testifying in the trial within a trial ordered by Justice Jessie Lessit to determine whether his confession implicating four police officers in the murder should be admitted as evidence in the case.
The confession was in relation to his involvement in the murder of Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.
The police officers charged alongside Ngugi are Fredrick Leliman, Leonard Maina, Stephen Chebulet and Sylvia Wanjiku.
Ngugi told Justice Lessit that he was picked up by officer Clement Mwangi and three others from his shop in Waithaka and they headed to the Flying Squad offices. They told him he would help them with a case.
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“I was uncooperative with them because they had not paid me Sh50,000 for another job I did for them involving robbery of a judge. I helped them nab the suspects,” Ngugi said.
He claims that the Flying Squad officer tortured him.“They used an object to squeeze my private parts and one of them kicked me in the same place while another slapped me.”
The suspect said Mwangi promised to pay him Sh30,000 per month and another Sh200,000 for his wife to start a business.
Ngugi said his brother John Mburu who is a Class Three dropout was present and they both signed the written statement with the promise they would be released.
However, police never released him as promised but took him to Thindigua police station in Kiambu and treated him well. “The police told me that they were keeping me as a protected witness as they prepared a house for me,” Ngugi said. The case resumes on March 6.
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