- The court on February 3, sentenced former police officer Fredrick Ole Leliman, the key mastermind in the murder, to death.
- Justice Jessie Lessit sentenced Leliman's co-accused Stephen Cheburet and Silvia Wanjiku to 30 and 24 years in jail respectively.
Image: FILE
The 26th President of the United States of America Theodore Roosevelt said, "No man is above the law, and no man is below it.
As the year ends, it is imperative to remember one case which marked this as true; the sentencing of the men who tortured and killed 32-year-old human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, seven years ago.
Before the case was closed on June 21, 2023, the court on February 3, sentenced former police officer Fredrick Ole Leliman, the key mastermind in the murder, to death.
Justice Jessie Lessit sentenced Leliman's co-accused Stephen Cheburet and Silvia Wanjiku to 30 and 24 years in jail respectively.
Another convict Peter Ngugi who was part of the killing plan and confessed how the chilling murders were planned and executed is similarly serving his sentence.
Ngugi was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Mutilated bodies at Oldonyo Sabuk River
In the case that sparked national outrage and protests against extrajudicial killings, Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were reported missing on June 23, 2016.
The three were last seen at a police station.
Kimani was representing Mwenda, who had accused Leliman of shooting him for no reason at a traffic stop in 2015, in court.
A week after their disappearance, their mutilated bodies were recovered from the Oldonyo Sabuk River.
An autopsy conducted on Kimani's body showed that he sustained 14 injuries to various parts of his body.
The report added that his skull and genitals had been crushed and he died from blunt force trauma to his head.
Mwendwa died from head, neck and chest injuries, while Muiruri had had a rope tied around his neck and died from strangulation.
Stuffed into the boot for three hours
Investigations were launched and four police officers including Leliman, Cheburet, Wanjiku and Leonard Mwangi were arrested in connection to the extra-judicial murders.
They were charged with three counts of murder.
The trial began and when Ngugi, who had also been charged with the murders was called to testify, he narrated the chilling hours before the murders.
He said they abducted the trio while leaving Mavoko Law Courts.
The court heard that Kimani, Mwenda and Muiruri were stuffed into the boot of a car for more than three hours as their killers debated whether to kill them.
They had been driven inside the boot of Leliman's car to a nearby bush where they were to be executed.
"At around 10 pm Mwenda who was the main target was killed. He was strangled to death using a rope and nylon paper. He was removed from the boot of Leliman's car and placed on the ground. His body was put in a sack and put in Kamenju's boot," Mwangi's October 2019 confession read.
The second victim, Muiruri was picked from the boot and taken to a different corner from where Mwenda was killed.
It was at 11 pm, and the driver was put into two sacks because as he was tall.
The last victim Willie Kimani was killed almost immediately after the second victim.
They were all killed using a rope and nylon paper.
Ngugi told the court that his job was to guard the three before handing them over to Mwangi who took them to the killing area.
Leliman and Kamenju were waiting there and after the killing, they put them in sacks in the boot.
After all three were killed, Ngugi drove Leliman's car which had two bodies while Kamenju drove the other one.
Kamenju led the way as he knew the Ol Donyu Sabuk area where the three were to be executed.
He had previously worked there and would help dispose of the bodies.
They took a rough road and got to a bridge where they stopped, removed the bodies and threw them separately into the river.
After disposing of the bodies they drove back way to Mlolongo at 4 am where they ate at an Asian restaurant.
Justice Lessit also heard that the chronology of events was carefully crafted several days leading to the murder.
The case continued and five years into it in June 2021, his family called for the expedition of the trial.
Forty-six witnesses
In December 2021, the defence closed its case in the Willie Kimani murder trial, setting the stage for closing arguments.
The prosecution presented 46 witnesses, some who testified in camera and others who were the last people to see and talk to the three men before they were killed.
It also used high technology to prove its case, including phone data analysis, cell site analysis and car recognition cameras from C3 (command control Centre).
Further, the state relied heavily on a police radio phone believed to have been with Leliman on the night of the crime, DNA evidence of cigarette butts and swabs taken from Ngugi, and a tissue paper said to have been written by Willie while he was at Syokimau police post.
Leliman, accomplices convicted and sentenced
On July 22, 2022, some six years later, Justice Lessit found that Leliman, Cheburet, Wanjiku and Ngugi were guilty of the murders of Kimani, Mwenda and Muiruri.
The fourth police officer Mwangi, was acquitted on all three counts of murder.
On February 3, 2023, the judgement was delivered and the court meted the aforementioned sentences.
Although Leliman would later be described as an honest, kind and upright man, the careful plan and execution of the murders painted him as a cold-hearted person.
Families of victims react to judgement
Reacting to the judgement, Willie's wife Hannah Kimani said they had lost hope and thought it would not happen.
All the same, they were grateful to God for justice.
"We believed that we were going to get justice and I had no doubt that they had committed the crime," she said.
Joseph Muiruri’s sister Stella also thanked the court for the sentence and for finally getting closure.
She said after close to seven years, they had found justice although it was not easy.
"We feel relieved they were all like my brothers so we feel relaxed everything has gone well we thank God," she said.