Friday, February 3, 2023 –Justice Jessie Lessit sitting in Milimani court has handed a death sentence to Lawyer Willy Kimani’s killers.
Making the long-awaited verdict in Nairobi today Friday February 3 morning, Lessit ruled that the four officers – Fredrick Leliman (the main suspect), Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, and informer Peter Ngugi – were directly linked to the plot and murder of the Nairobi lawyer.
She would start by decreeing a death penalty for Fredrick Liliman as the second accused was handed a whopping 30 years behind bars.
The third accused, according to the sentence read today, will have to contend with serving 24 years in prison; as the police informer was slapped with two decades in jail.
“First accused is sentenced to death in each of the three counts, the second accused is sentenced to thirty years imprisonment in each of the three terms with the prison terms running concurrently,” she read.
Lessit, without blinking an eye, went on to read the remaining part of the ruling as the suspects waited in the dock, pensively.
“The third accused is sentenced to 24 years imprisonment in each of the three counts with the prison terms running concurrently, and the fifth accused is sentenced to twenty years imprisonment,” Justice Jessie Lessit stated.
And though the judge had a difficult time punishing Sylvia Wanjiru because she was the youngest by the time the crime was committed, it was not easy to leave her unpunished since the part she played in the whole crime was not dismissible.
Luckily, Lessit asked the prison department to put in consideration the period the accused had already served behind bars.
They also have14 days to lodge an appeal.
Kimani’s case kicked off in the year 2016 when his client, boda boda rider Josephat Mwenda, was accidentally shot by Fredrick Leliman who started threatening the lawyer and the boda boda rider.
This fight would then culminate into Lawyer Kimani’s murder where his body alongside two others were thrown into Ol-Donyo Sabuk River, almost 70 kilometres away from the crime scene.
Lawyer Kimani, his client Josphat Mwenda and their driver Joseph Muiruri were abducted on June 23, 2016 shortly after leaving Mavoko Law Courts, Athi River, where they were pursuing a case against the police.
