The officers have been identified as Senior Sergeant Fredrick Leliman, Corporal Stephen Chebulet and Police Constable Silvia Wanjiku/CFM NEWS
NAIROBI, Kenya, July 4 – The Nairobi Chief Magistrate court has directed that the three police officers implicated in the murder of the lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and a taxi driver be detained for 14 days so that investigations into the incident may be completed.
This is after the Director of Public Prosecutions made an application which he says will also enable investigators to cover all angles in the probe.
The officers have been identified as Senior Sergeant Fredrick Leliman, Corporal Stephen Chebulet and Police Constable Silvia Wanjiku.
The DPP further states that the period will also be used to conduct a comprehensive post-mortem on the three bodies so as to determine the cause of death.
“The Applicant is investigating a case of Murder of Willie Kimani Kinuthia, Josephat Mwenda Mwathi and Joseph Thinguri Muiruri contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code,” the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Mutuku stated.
“It is believed that the Respondents have other associates who are still at large. The Respondents were arrested on 1st day of July 2016 and investigations are not yet complete and the team of investigators require additional fourteen (14) days to complete investigations,” he said. “It is in the interest of justice and within the discretion of this Honourable court to consider and grant the orders sought.”
The DPP contends that the detention of the three will further prevent them from interfering with any witnesses in the case which has attracted a huge public outcry.
The Law Society of Kenya, an interested party in the matter, has supported the application and the suspects’ lawyer Cliff Ombeta did not oppose it.
Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet has rejected claims that police sanctioned extra judicial killings in the country and vowed to ensure those responsible are held to account.
The bodies of lawyer Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were found dumped at a river in Kilimambogo, with signs that they were tortured before their deaths.
The bodies of the three were moved from the City Mortuary to Kenyatta National Hospital’s morgue which has X-ray facilities which will help pathologists determine the nature of injuries suffered by the three.
The Pathologists are particularly keen to establish if the three were shot at, strangled to death or any other means used to kill them due to the state of the bodies which were tied, while others had some of the body parts chopped off.
The International Justice Mission where the lawyer worked has vowed to pursue all the necessary legal measures, to ensure justice prevails in a bid to end extra judicial killings in Kenya.
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered at Freedom Corner in Nairobi to protest the extra-judicial killing of the three.
Lawyers have also indicated that they will boycott the courts for a whole week in solidarity with their colleague.
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