Gaps that led to acquittal of Mbiyu Koinange’s widow

Former Cabinet Minister Mbiyu Koinange’s widow Edda Wanjiru (in front) leaves Nakuru High Court on Monday after the court acquitted her and six other people over chargers of killing Maasai land rights activist Moses Mpoe. [PHOTO: KIPSANG JOSEPH/STANDARD]

NAKURU: Former powerful minister Mbiyu Koinange’s widow Eddah Wanjiru was acquitted alongside her stepson David Njuno and five others for the murder of Maasai land rights activist Moses Mpoe in a judgement delivered on Monday.

They were acquitted alongside the then farm manager Nicholas Ngetich, Johnstone Sigei, Stephen Mwanga, Sanaga Mbukoi and Kiragu Macharia, who stood trial for the same offence.

The late minister’s widow had been depicted as the mastermind behind the murder whereas the other accused, including her stepson, were branded ‘supporting cast’ who were unhappy with the Mpoe’s objection to sale of 4,200 acres of Muthera Farm in Mau Narok.

AN OBSTACLE

The court, in the judgment, noted that it was further depicted that they saw the slain activist as an obstacle to their interests.

The slain activist and Paarsaiya ole Kitu, a local wheat farmer, were shot dead at close range by a suspected hitman riding on a motorcycle along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway on December 3, 2010, at around 6:30pm.

Mpoe’s death sparked outrage from members of the Maasai community coming at a time when he was leading a protest against the Government’s intended purchase of farms in Mau Narok to resettle post-election violence victims.

The community was against the Government’s IDP resettlement plan claiming the controversial land was allegedly grabbed from them by the colonialists and should have reverted back to them.

The Koinanges were linked to the murder on suspicion that on the day Mpoe was killed, Wanjiru and Njuno were around Nakuru and had held several meetings probably to plan the murder.

However, the links were loosed by all the accused’s explanation on motives of the meetings and broke the prosecution’s chain of events, according to the ruling.

Wanjiru was arrested on October 8, 2011 – over eight months after the killing.

The prosecution’s case was that Wanjiru, Mbukoi, Ngetich, and Njuno met on December 3 to fine-tune the execution plan.

The court heard that after her arrest, she was informed by police that she was arrested because she was an administrator of Mbiyu Koinange’s estate. It was claimed that Wanjiru had a close relationship with Ngetich.

Prosecution hinged on the evidence of Mpoe’s brother Joseph, who was in the company of the two deceased’s in the same car during the attack while driving to Nakuru town. He luckily survived the assassin’s bullet with an eye injury after their attack at Soilo junction.

Joseph told court that he saw the gunman and that it was Ngetich, the then Muthera Farm manager. He was categorical that he knew Ngetich and the rivalry between him and Mpoe.

However, “presence of a dangerous criminal” that was later killed inside his house at Rhonda Estate in Nakuru, according to a Flying Squad Officer Paul Sigilai who was a prosecution witness, created another line of story.

The AK47 rifle and ammunition recovered from the “dangerous criminal’s” house were subjected to ballistic examination and analysis revealed 16 spent cartridges recovered in Soilo shooting scene were fired from it.

The six bullets fired, according to ballistic examiner Superintendent Lawrence Nthiwa, two used bullets collected from scene, matched three from body of Kitu and one from Mpoe’s body.

Ngetich, who the survivor claimed he saw, was acquitted for contradicting evidence on his identification.

Defence witness Alice Adamba, who claimed to be the widow of the “criminal”, and who was under protection by the defence, claimed her husband Martin Mbugua was killed in a cover-up of Mpoe’s murder as he had been promised money and land to execute the murder.

Justice Hellen Omondi, who presided over case, disputed the claims including those of another widow, Tabitha.

Tabitha claimed her husband Fredrick Mungai too had been promised Sh2 million and land for the same job before he was killed in Kericho.

Omondi ruled there was no proof that the women were the wives of the two alleged assassins in a network, including a motorbike rider identified as Oti, who was also allegedly killed in eliminating traces of the plot.

But there were also threats through SMS that Mpoe had allegedly received from unknown source and other threats by Wanjiru between 2009 and 2010 prior to his killing.

POWERFUL PERSONS

Wanjiru, however, said powerful persons in Government threatened Mpoe and that he had complained to her saying his life was in danger.

According to her, Mpoe told her that the then Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia and William Kabogo, then Juja MP, had twice tracked him and even sent 15 GK vehicles.

The court heard Mpoe had objected the sale of the Muthera Farm to a white man and two Asians who ended up being a camouflage for Kabogo, current Kiambu governor, who was to sell the same land to the Government through Kimemia for the resettlement of IDPs.

Police investigator Abdirahman Lalaikiipia, testified for prosecution that he recorded Mpoe’s threat reports and cell phone owner in which the SMS was sent was traced with Safaricom and owners identified but he could not remember who it was.

The court noted that the registered cell phone owner was a vital link but police were reluctant to establish and hence broke the chain in the circumstantial evidence that prosecution had hypothesised.

But Justice Omondi said it was strange that Mpoe, a man so bold as to oppose sale property to such powerful individuals, could not tell police of the threats and only confide in Wanjiru, a person she was not comfortable with. This, according to Omondi, was a line rather difficult to logically accept.

Mpoe’s son Raphael, who was the 10th defence witness, said after Waiganjo was adversely implicated in the murder of his father, he rushed to meet national CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro and Kabogo who told him not to worry.

The defence later claimed the murder was planned by the highly placed individuals so as to coincide with the Koinange widow’s visit to Nakuru where they had another court case and police knew about it.

Senior Counsel Paul Muite said Rift Valley PPO then, was aware of the plan and intended to stage manage the situation to appear Wanjiru and Njuno were involved.