- Lelei and Leliman were jointly charged on Thursday last week with the murder of two persons in 2016 Mlolongo.
- The prosecution claimed that Lelei executes witnesses and should not be granted bail.
Celebrated cop Stephen Lelei who was last week charged with the murder of two people has been released on Sh500,000 bail.
Lelei was one of the cops who got accolades for his response during the Westgate al Shabaab attack in 2013.
On Tuesday, Judge David Kemei of the High Court in Machakos released him on bail, ruling that there was no compelling reason to deny him bail.
However, Fredrick Leliman, who was also charged alongside Lelei for the murders, was not lucky as the court denied him bail.
Leliman is currently in Kamiti remand after he was denied bail for the murder of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani and two others four years ago.
In the latter case, it is alleged that on May 27, 2016, at Kitanga Hotel in Mlolongo Lelei and Leliman jointly murdered Jacob Mwendwa Mbai and Elizabeth Nduku.
While denying Leliman bail the court cited his circumstances unlike Lelei's.
“As the second accused has another case whose details have not been fully availed, I am of the view that granting bail at this stage might not be appropriate,” the court ruled.
However, Judge Kemeu said Leliman was to seek renewal of bail at any stage of the proceedings whenever there was a change in his circumstances.
He ordered Lelei to pay Sh500,000 cash bail with two sureties of Sh1 million each to secure his release.
“I note that there is no evidence from the state that investigations are still continuing and in any event, the state admitted that investigations were complete and hence the decision was made to charge them,” the judge ruled.
Justice Kemei further said he was not satisfied that the accused persons may access important prosecution evidence and cause it to disappear as had been alleged by the prosecution.
“Considering all the foregoing, I find that the compelling reasons advanced by the prosecution against Lelei do not meet the threshold of the Constitution to warrant a denial of a bond to Lelei whereas Leliman merits denial of a bond at this stage,” the court held.
The prosecution had strongly opposed their release on bail, saying that the two could interfere with witnesses.
They accused Lelei of covering up the deaths and so no inquiry file was opened by the police under his command who had the authority to notify the magistrate.
The court heard that Lelei had threatened key witnesses and as a result, they sought the help of the Witness Protection Authority.
It is alleged that Lelei had a history of tracing and executing persons actively involved in prosecution and investigations of cases where they were adversely mentioned.
In response, Lelei's lawyers dismissed the allegations by the prosecution arguing that the claims were baseless.
They submitted that there was no evidence by the state that Lelei conducted the executions.
Edited by Henry Makori