Fredrick Leliman, the police officer who allegedly hatched a scheme to eliminate Josephat Mwenda, was Wednesday put to task to explain his bad blood relationship.
Mwenda was killed alongside his lawyer Willie Kimani and driver Joseph Muiruri on June 23, 2016. The three were coming from Mavoko law courts after the hearing of a case that Leliman had testified in days before.
During cross-examination, the prosecution told Leliman that he led the plan to execute the three men because his job was on the line.
“Confirm that you arrested Mwenda for the second time on December 13, 2015 and charged him with six counts of traffic offences,” Prosecutor Nicholas Mutuku asked.
Leliman denied, however, the prosecution produced a statement he gave the court in that particular case in which he testified that “he arrested Mwenda alongside former Mlolongo OCS Moses Wambugu, now deceased.
The prosecution further asked him to confirm or deny that Mwenda was rearrested after he filed a complaint against him at IPOA on his conduct in the case.
Similarly, he was asked to explain his quest to eliminate Mwenda was because Mwenda filed another complaint before the Inspector General of police
“You knew there was a complaint before the IG by the time you were testifying in the case of Mwenda,” Mutuku asked.
“After testifying in that case, I did not follow up,” Leliman responded.
Leliman had also claimed that he did not know Mwenda before his second rearrest, however grilled by the prosecution, he admitted to having met him in court.
“Before you rearrested him you would go to court for mentions, Mwenda would come to your station to look for P3 forms the entire year of 2015, You knew him very well. Still before the second rearrest you were summoned by IPOA. I put it to you that you had a grudge with Mwenda,” Mutuku posed.
To this, Leliman said it was lie, the former Mlolongo officer further denied arresting Mwenda in another incident in February 2016.
“Do you know that by then IJM were looking for how to place Mwenda under witness protection because his life was in danger?” Mutuku asked to which Leliman said he did not know their plans.
On the issue of the police radio phone that the prosecution alleged was at the killing site, Leliman insisted that he did not use the pocket radio and could explain who had it the day the three were killed.
He claimed that he used another radio for the three consecutive days before June 23, when the murder happened.
When asked to explain why the radio was found at Mwangi’s house, he said he left the radio seen at the crime scene at the office but he could not trace it that day, however he never reported that the radio was lost.
Leliman was also taken to task to explain how his call data and that of Peter Ngugi was placed at the same area when he claimed he does not know Ngugi.
“Confirm where your phone was and where the fifth accused's phone was on June 22 at about 18.30hrs. Was it that at the call center?” Mutuku asked.
“Yes at Syokimanu but my lady that’s a big area I cannot know,” he said.
