NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 3 – Former Policeman Frederick Leliman has been sentenced to death in the murder of Willie Kimani, his client and a driver.
Three other former police officers and an informer who collaborated with him were handed between 20 and 30-year jail terms.
“The first accused is sentenced to death in each of the three counts, the second accused is sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in each of the three counts with the prison terms running concurrently,” Justice Jessie Lesiit said in sentencing them Friday.
They include Stephen Cheburet who will serve 30 years, Sylvia Wanjiku 24 years and informer Peter Ngugi who will be in jail for 20 years.
They were all sentenced by Justice Jessie Lesiit who ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt in linking the four officers to the murder of the lawyer, his client and a driver who were all abducted and murdered in cold blood.
A fourth former police officer, Leonard Mwangi, was acquitted when he turned into a witness.
During the trial, the prosecution presented 46 witnesses and 117 exhibits.
Bodies of the human rights lawyer, Willie Kimani and that of his client, Josephat Mwendwa and a taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were discovered in Ol-Donyo Sabuk River days after they were reported missing.
Evidence produced in court showed that they were abducted after a court session on 22nd June, 2016 before they were briefly locked up and were not booked, only to be taken out and murdered at an open field.
Their bodies were then transported to Ol Donyo Sabuk River where they were disposed off. They were discovered on July 1.
The lawyer Kimani had been defending his client Josephat Mwenda who is a boda boda rider in 2015 when he was accidentally shot by Leliman.
He filed a case, and received several threats to his life from the officer who eventually hatched a plot to abduct them after a court session and murdered them with the help of the other officers.
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