The four police officers facing murder. CFM-FILE.
NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 8 -The High Court was on Tuesday set to hear more evidence in the trial of four police officers and their informer charged with the 2016 murder of lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.
A new witness, identified in court documents as number 40 was expected to introduce new evidence in form of a recorded video confession.
The testimony of Peter Ngugi, the fifth accused person in the case was on Monday read out in an open court with a blow by blow account on how the three victims were trailed, abducted and finally killed in cold blood.
Four Police Officers Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, and Leonard Mwangi are charged alongside Ngugi with the murder of the three.
So far, 39 prosecution witnesses have testified in the trial of the 2016 murders that shocked the nation and exposed the dark side of the National Police Service.
The Monday confession by Ngugi who is the fifth accused person was presented by DCI detective Geoffrey Kinyua who revealed how they even differed on whether they should proceed with the plot having exposed themselves when the suspects were taken into custody at Mlolongo Police post.
The witness said they started by trailing the victims after sergeant Fredrick ole Leliman told him about the plan to kill Mwenda who was a boda boda rider and had filed a case against him.
Ngugi was specifically tasked with monitoring the movements of Mwenda as soon as he left the court.
The confession was read out to Justice Jessie Lesiit.
According to Ngugi, back in 2011 around Waithaka area, he was approached by the Officer In-charge of Kabete Police Station over claims that he was ferrying thieves.
He denied the allegations but months later he went to the station and requested to see the OCS who agreed to enlist him as an informer. The OCS was later transferred to Bungoma and later Mlolongo.
In one of the visits to the Station to see him, Ngugi said the OCS introduced him to three police officers, among them Sergent Leliman.
In May 2016, while at the police post, Seargent Leliman approached him seeking assistance on an issue he had been agonising about.
He recalled how Sergent Leliman called him at the end of May and told him about a person who was pushing for his removal with the assistance of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).
He claims that Lelman told him they had to “finish the lawyer.
According to his testimony, they agreed to meet at Athi River Law Courts on June 23 when Lawyer Kimani was scheduled to appear for a hearing of his case. Ngugi said the target was identified to him by a lady acting on Leliman’s instructions.
Leliman would later join him accompanied by Sergent Mwangi.
The three were then arrested and taken to Syokimau Police Station.
Ngugi told the court that he was later instructed to drive a taxi, the victims were using, to Limuru and abandoned it at Kwambira are before he returned to Mlolongo where Leliman and Mwangi were waiting for him at a bar.
Together, he said, they left for Syokimau Police Station where they ordered them to come out of the cells, handcuffed them and bundled them in the boot of car that was driven to a bush where they argued for three hour on whether they should still kill them, having taken them to the cells.
He said the three were eventually strangled to death with a nylon paper and rope before their bodies were taken to Ol Donyo Sabuk river.
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