Willie Kimani Murder Case: Main Suspect Sentenced To Death

Police officers Fredrick Leliman (main suspect), Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku and informer Peter Ngugi have been sentenced over the brutal murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and taxi driver, Joseph Muiruri on June 23, 2016.

Justice Jessie Lesit ruled on Friday, February 3 that Leliman was sentenced to death while the second accused was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The third accused, on the other hand, will serve 24 years in prison while the police informer was sentenced to 20 years.

Former police officer Fredrick Leliman, on trial for the murder of lawyer Willy Kimani on April 23, 2020. /FACEBOOK

“First accused is sentenced to death in each of the three counts, the second accused is sentenced to thirty years imprisonment, the third accused is sentenced to 24 years imprisonment and the fifth accused is sentenced to twenty years imprisonment,” Justice Lesit stated.

The court stated that it considered Sylvia Wanjiru to be the youngest in the group and a junior at the time the crime was committed, even though she played a role that was not dismissible.

The judge had also ruled that a police officer is paid to safeguard the life of citizens and not to take it.

The accused were on July 22, 2022, found guilty, with the fifth accused, Administration Police (AP) officer Leonard Mwangi, acquitted of all three counts of murder.

Mwangi however faced a separate murder charge alongside Leliman for killings perpetrated in Machakos County. They were accused alongside former Mavoko Officer Commanding Station (OCS) Stephen Lelei of the murder of Jacob Mwenda in Mlolongo.

Lady Justice Jessie Lessit in her judgement on Friday, July 22 ruled that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the three had plotted to murder their victims and went on to execute the well-oiled plan.

Lessit found that Leliman was the mastermind behind the murder and planned to execute the boda boda rider after the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) got wind of the incident. Leliman had shot Mwenda during a police stop in 2015.

The judge also noted that evidence provided by the prosecution suggested that Leliman met one of the accused officers at a bar in Machakos, where he complained that the case would cost him his job.

Ngugi, the police informer, was also revealed to have backed away from the murder after he testified that he was assigned the role of tracking down the Mavoko three upon being informed that they were under investigation.

Lessit, before delivering the ruling, had noted that the defence team had requested that she withdraw herself from the case after she was promoted to the Court of Appeal. However, she insisted that the continued hearing of the murder case was constitutional as the court had taken too long on the matter.

"The court has taken five years to hear the case, hampered by many factors, and the most challenging being the pandemic which shut down courts for a certain period," she ruled.

She also noted that had she withdrawn herself from the case, it would have been an injustice to the family given that the murder sparked uproar across the country owing to Kimani's renowned status as a human rights lawyer.

The Mavoko three had vanished after they were last seen at a police station in Syokimau. Kimani and Mwenda had attended a court session in Mavoko after Mwenda had filed a case against a police officer.

Two weeks later, the bodies of the three men were found nearly 100 kilometres away in a river in Ol Donyo Sabuk.

The accused persons in the murder of lawyer Willie Kimani from left are Peter Ngugi, Leonard Mwangi, Stephen Cheburet and Fredrick Leliman during the final judgement at Milimani law courts on Friday, July 22, 2022. /TWITTER