•Kenyans have had to endure the hearing of the murder of Lawyer Willie Kimani, Josphat Mwenda and their driver Joseph Muiruri as they wait for justice to prevail.
•After five years of Court cases and trial, Justice Jessie Lessit has ruled today that five accused persons in the Kimani murder case have a case to answer.
Image: FILE
Willie Kimani’s struggle for help, tissue paper notes, sick lawyers and delay tactics.
Kenyans have seen the hearing of the murder case involving lawyer Willie Kimani, Josphat Mwenda and their driver Joseph Muiruri for years as they wait for justice to prevail.
After five years of court cases and trial, Justice Jessie Lessit ruled on Monday that five accused persons in the Kimani murder case have a case to answer.
The court placed all the five on their defense after the prosecution last week formally closed its case in the case after calling a total of 46 witnesses.
The accused include four APs and a police informant. The APs - Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku and Leonard Mwangi - are charged alongside Peter Ngugi, the police informant.
But how did we get this far?
On June 30 2016, the three were found dead in gunny bags in Oldonyo Sabuk River after going missing for a week ago.
The three were to appear in court after an appointment at Mavoko Law Court but it was later reported that they had been abducted by administration police officers.
Willie represented Mwenda in a case against an officer who was accused of corruption.
On trial are AP officers Fredrick Leliman, Leonard Maina, Stephen Chebulet, Silvia Wanjiku and informer Peter Ngugi.
The The killings sparked outrage with many human rights organizations blaming police force for a series of extrajudicial killings.
The hashtag #StopExtrajudicialKillings gained popularity on social media as people gathered to take part in protests around the country.
A joint statement by 34 Kenyan and international human rights organisations condemned the killings.
But the government denied the existence of police death squads, saying any killings are the work of "rogue officers".
Since their murder in 2016, 46 witnesses have testified in court.
DROVE IN TOWN
In 2018, a court heard that Kimani drove through Nairobi streets on the last three days to his murder.
A witness told the court Kimani’s car was seen on Mombasa Road moments after he had been hijacked.
The vehicle was seen at Cabanas heading to the city centre with only the driver inside.
Earlier, the car had three occupants believed to have been Kimani, his driver Joseph Muiruri and client Josephat Mwenda.
“The image shows a different occupant in the driver’s seat,” expert witness Kennedy Mwadime said.
He took the court through the Intelligence Video Surveillance of Kimani’s movement on the three days prior to his kidnapping.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Mwadime showed the vehicle, a KBX 126C, in the city from June 21 to June 23, 2016 when Kimani went missing.
The vehicle was later seen on Mombasa Road near the Syokimau Railway Station heading towards Mlolongo at 7am.
Hours later, at around noon, the surveillance cameras picked up the vehicle on Mombasa Road around Mlolongo driving toward Nairobi.
That was around the same time Kimani went missing after leaving the Mavoko Law Courts.
DELAY TACTICS
The then DPP Keriako Tobiko accused the defence for using delay tactics when they asked for six witnesses to be recalled.
Tobiko categorically opposed recalling witnesses, terming it “premature” and a delaying tactic that will only create confusion.
The lawyers had told Justice Jessie Lesiit they want another chance to question key prosecution witnesses so they can challenge their knowledge of a shipping container believed to have been used as a cell.
“We have just been supplied with 26 photographs of the crime of scene and which was referred to by witnesses. This court has been grappling to know exactly how the scene looked like, we have even used court windows to describe it,” lawyer James Muchere said.
But Tobiko, through Nicholas Mutuko, said even though it was their right, recalling the six witnesses would achieve nothing. He said an expert who took the photographs will be called to testify.
“There is no point in subjecting the six lay witnesses to more cross-examination. Some of them did not even go to the scene of crime,” he said.
Justice Lessit said she is a veteran and knows quite well the tricks normally pulled by suspects after one of the officers fell ill ahead of yesterday’s hearing.
Stephen Chebulet complained of stomach aches and headaches and told the judge he was not in a position to sit through the hearing.
MURDER SCENE, CROSS EXAMINATION DILEMA
Police officers charged Asked the court to stop Law Society of Kenya, International Justice Mission, and lawyers representing victims from cross-examining witnesses.
But they filed an application saying their rights to a fair trial is being violated.
"In criminal proceedings, advocates watching brief have no capacity to cross-examine witnesses at all," their lawyer said.
Lawyers watching brief for the family, Law Society of Kenya and International Justice Mission, relied on Facebook chats and phone data records.
This was to prove Wilson Kamau, an officer attached to an undercover unit that was headed by Leliman, called Ngugi several times from June 23.
Crucial evidence suggesting that police officers were at the crime scene on the night of the killings.
The information details signal movement retrieved from a police pocket radio.
It showed that the suspects were near Mavoko law courts the day Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda, and their driver Joseph Muiruri went missing.
The signals retrieved from the Integrated Command Control and Communication System – a police CCTV system, further shows the signal moving from Mavoko area to Syokimau police post.
The court heard that the radio signal stayed in the same area for more than five hours and only moved some few minutes to midnight.
HORRIFIC EXPERIENCE
A diver who found the bodies told of his two-day horrific experience. John Mwaniki said the bodies were tied at their waists, while their heads had been tied with plastic bags.
The bodies had started decomposing and blood oozed from their mouths and noses.
Mwaniki told Justice Jessie Lesiit he had gone for a bath in the river when he saw “a strange thing” floating. He decided to go closer to find out what it was.
He saw legs protruding from a gunny bag. “I swam out immediately to call my friend Patrick,” Mwaniki said.
The two friends agreed that Mwaniki would rush to call the police while Patrick would watch over the body. He reported, but police did not take action, he says.
A scene of crimes officer demonstrated how Kimani may have made his last emotional plea for help.
Joseph Mucheru, an officer attached to the Flying Squad Unit, Nairobi told court that Kimani who was detained at a container at Syokimau AP Camp held onto metal grills as he desperately whistled at a passing by boda rider.
In his hands was a black socket holder he had unplugged from a pot in the tiny cell which also doubled as a store. In one of the holes was a well folded three leafed tissue paper.
According to the officer, Kimani who may have been held high by one of his friends then threw a socket holder at the two and pleaded that they open it.
"Please call number xxxxx and let Rose know that Willie and Mwenda have been arrested and held at Syokimau. We are in danger," the note written in Swahili read.
Read: Witness in Willie Kimani murder case describes lawyer's struggle for help
AILING LAWYER
Drama ensued at the Courts when criminal lawyer Cliff Ombeta refused to disclose his medical condition to the judge.
Ombeta who was dressed casually in sweatpants in a move to show that he could not represent his client insisted that he is sick.
He said DCI can confirm with his doctors but maintained he will not disclose to them what he is ailing from.
"What I am ailing from for how long and what it is is not important... let my ailment be about me because I am the one who is in pain... please leave me alone to ail...," the lawyer sobbed.
He went on "I am the one in pain... are you happy that am in such a situation?"
HOW MURDER WAS EXECUTED
Like scenes only possible in a thriller movie, the court was taken through a detailed account on the murders.
It is a story of conspiracy, false pretence and disagreements that exposed the court to the murder of three men who were first arrested as criminals.
Chilling details were given to the court on how the execution of Kimani and two others were killed in the hands of the police.
According to the confession, Ngugi, a former bodaboda rider was recruited as a police informer in 2011 mostly around Kabete.
Ngugi revealed how they killed Kimani and two other victims before their bodies were dumped in the Ol Donyo Sabuk river.
His job was to remove the victims from the boot of the car and hand them to the police for execution.
At 10pm, the bodaboda guy, Mwenda, was the first to be killed by strangling with a rope.
An hour later, the second victim, Muiruri, was taken to another corner and executed through strangling.
He was then put in two sacks because he was too tall to fit in one.
COVID STRIKES
The hearing was adjourned after one of the accused persons tested positive for Covid-19.
AP Stephen Cheburet who is the second accused person in the case informed the court that he had tested positive for the disease.
Defence counsel Ombeta also tested positive for Covid-19.
Through his lawyer, Ombeta informed the court that he had interacted with a client in Malindi who turned out positive.
This made the case to stall for three consecutive days.
The trial which began in 2016 has previously delayed following multiple adjournments at the behest of the defence.
More than once, the judge said, "court will not entertain any more adjournments."
Justice Lessit also became unwell.
Two months ago, the court was informed that a witness was bereaved and could not attend hearings.
The prosecution told Justice Jessie Lessit that 44th witness Nicholas Ole Sena had lost his father.
SPIRITED FIGHT
Ombeta put up a spirited fight in a bid to have his client Fredrick Leliman accused of the Willie Kimani murder.
While cross-examining the last witness, Chief Inspector Clement Mwangi, Ombeta picked holes in his testimony that had put his client on the scene of the crime.
However, Mwangi insisted that Leliman was among the people who abducted Willie, his client Josephat Mwenda and driver Joseph Muiruri.
Mwangi told court that one of the vehicles belonging to Ombeta's client is believed to have transported the bodies from the killing site in Soweto to Ol Donyo Sabuk River where they were dumped.