Officer convicted as co-accused freed in ex-MP’s son murder

By John Muthoni

Nairobi, KENYA: The Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of ex-Police Inspector Dickson Munene in the case of the murder of former Gatundu North MP Patrick Muiruri’s son. On the other hand, the same court set free his co-accused and a businessman, Alex Chepkonga, with whom he had initially been sentenced to hang. The two had been sentenced to hang by High Court judge Mohammed Warsame after he found them guilty of the death of James Ng’ang’a in Westlands after a scuffle in a club where they had been drinking.

Following the earlier ruling, the two appealed, faulting the chronology of events on January 24, 2009, when Mr Munene was said to have shot Ng’ang’a in the stomach.

In their judgment yesterday, three Appellate Court judges, Roselyn Nambuye, David K Maraga and Mohamed Warsame, said the two had no common intention to kill the deceased and thus exonerated Mr Chepkonga from the crime. The judges, however, condemned Munene, who was found guilty of using his pistol, saying it was reckless of him to have used it when the situation did not require him to do so.

“There are no previous acts to show that the deceased and the second appellant (Chepkonga) had differences. The second appellant may not have known that the first appellant had a gun on him and thus they did not have a common intention.

“However, it is important to note that the police are given guns to use on very rare occasions; the first appellant ought not to have used the gun and thus we dismiss his appeal,” ruled Justice Nambuye who read the judgment on behalf of the other judges.

The judge described how the deceased was with his younger brother, John Gachera, and Jedida Ahawo, their neighbour, at Crooked Q Club in Westlands.

A scuffle between him and Chepkonga arose when he insulted him and thus prompted them to leave the club where he was restrained from fighting by the club’s bouncers. The two brothers, Gachera and Ng’ang’a, sped off in their car.

Nambuye said, “We have not found any evidence of the deceased hitting anyone as the appellants said. Knowing that they are young people, the second appellant may have followed him so that he could give him a few jabs for insulting him.”

During the scuffle, Chepkonga is said to have called Munene, who was in the car, outside with a woman. The ex-policeman followed them and Chepkonga joined them later when the deceased was shot.

Sytem unfair

The judge faulted Munene’s side of the story that the deceased took the gun from him and shot himself twice when he told him to handcuff himself.

The first appellant had told the court that he had followed him with an intention to arrest him for causing unrest in the club but the judge held that the trajectory of the shots was horizontal (downwards) instead of vertical, and thus he must have shot him from a lower position.

The judge said he had malice hence his targeting of the deceased’s vital organs. “The first appellant did not intend to subdue the deceased. He should have shot him in his legs,” said Nambuye. She, however, tarnished the versions given by the police officers on the gun used, adding that they all gave different gun numbers from the one Munene had used.

“The prosecution gave different versions about the gun. We are surprised that all these different numbers were given by senior police officers either by fault or lack of concern, but no evidence that there was another gun at the scene and thus the gun used to shoot was the one the first appellant had,” she said.

The judges gave Chepkonga back his freedom after five years, which was faulted by the deceased’s parents.

Speaking outside the court after the ruling, Muiruri told journalists that he was in pain to know that one of the individuals convicted of killing his son had been released.

“The judicial system is unfair. They have convicted one and released another whereas they had both been held liable for the same crime. My son will never come back again,” added a furious Muiruri.

The former MP said he would consult with the Attorney General for the possibility of appealing in the Supreme Court against the decision by the Appellate Court. Chepkonga’s lawyer, Peter Munari, said he was happy that the ruling had favoured his client.