Willie Kimani’s killers to be sentenced next week
Four convicts in the murder case of lawyer Willie Kimani will be sentenced next week.
The four, who include Mr Stephen Cheburet, Mr Fredrick Leliman and Ms Sylviah Wanjiku, were convicted on July 22, 2022. They were convicted alongside the fourth accused who is Mr Peter Ngugi a police informer.
Initially, the conviction was scheduled to take place on December 2022, but the High Court postponed it.
Justice Jessie Lessit, now a judge of the Court of Appeal, found the four guilty of killing rights Mr Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri on June 23, 2016.
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The bodies of the three men were found stashed in gunny bags in Ol Donyo Sabuk, Machakos County, on July 1, 2016.
They had been dumped in River Athi and were found more than a week after the men were reported missing.
When delivering her verdict, Justice Lessit said the accused persons had a common intention.
“I am satisfied that the prosecution established beyond reasonable doubt that the accused were principal offenders and acted in one common intention to commit the offences as charged,” Justice Lessit said while finding the accused guilty of murder.
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The judge added that the evidence on analysis of the officers’ mobile phones and communication gadgets given by the National Police Service locked them at the scene of the killing in Mlolongo.
It also showed their movement when the bodies were dumped in Ol Donyo Sabuk, more than 100 kilometres from Mlolongo.
“The prosecution relied on technological and forensic evidence, confessions and phone call data from Safaricom and Airtel. The call sites were captured in the data, handset history, geographical locations and movement,” the judge said.
One of the suspects recounted in court on how they killed the lawyer.
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