The smoking gun, deadly affair and murder most foul

A police officer escorts 29 year old Erick Makau Musila to the Naivasha High Court on 10th February ,2016 to face charges of Murder. Musila denied the charges of killing musician Diana Chemutai alias Chelele and the case will now be heard on the 9th and 10th of may this year. [Photo: Antony Gitonga]

When Eliud Kipchirchir, an Eldoret based surveyor, retired to bed at CIS Guest House in Bomet on the evening of March 30, 2012, it may not have occurred to him that was his last night alive.

He was a friend to popular Kalenjin musician Diana “Chelele” Chemutai, according to court records, and had been with her at the hotel.

Chelele had reportedly booked for him a room and requested a watchman at the facility to serve him water.

Samuel Rotich Kibet, the watchman, was later told by Chelele that Kipchirchir was being pursued by police.

Chelele, who was later charged together with her husband Eric Makau Musila with the murder of Kipchirchir, is now dead.

Her mutilated body was discovered in her home in Bomet two days after her disappearance on January 7, 2016.

Her death only made it worse for Musila, an Administration Police officer, who is now facing yet another murder charge.

In June 2016, witnesses who testified in Chelele’s murder case told a Naivasha court the couple’s marriage had been rocked by claims of infidelity.

Early this week, the High Court in Kisumu convicted Musila of Kipchirchir’s murder, with Justice David Majanja ruling that the evidence produced linked him to the offence.

Dead men tell no tales, but the watchman Chelele left instructions to drew the picture of what happened that night.

At about 11pm, two men walked into the restaurant and demanded to be allowed into Kipchirchir’s room. One man was in civilian, while the other one was dressed in an army uniform.

Kibet, who testified in the murder case, said they let the two men into the room after they produced police badges.

He told the court that the men later left the hotel with Kipchirchir in handcuffs.

Burnt body

The following day, Kipchirchir’s body was found along Mogogosiek road on the border of Kericho and Bomet counties. He was still in handcuffs with his body partly burned.

Musembi Gonga, a chief inspector of police, said they found two spent cartridges next to the body and a jerrican of kerosene.

The death opened a protracted legal battle in which Chelele and her husband Musila were accused of being behind the surveyor’s murder.

A prosecutor who handled the case said Kipchirchir was murdered as a result of a suspected love triangle.

A forensic investigation into phone conversations established that Musila called Kipchirchir on the night of the murder. The data placed Kipchirchir and Musila at the same location where the body was found.

The investigators also linked the spent cartridges to Musila’s firearm, which was confiscated after he was arrested.

No eye witness

Musila however denied involvement in the murder and suggested that his wife Chelele could have been the one who shot Kipchirchir. He said Chelele was the only other person who had access to the firearm.

Musila said he was guarding a senior government official on the night the murder happened.

He told the court the officer he was guarding had been in meetings in Nairobi and did not make any trips to Bomet or the Rift Valley.

Musila asked the court to dismiss the case on grounds that the prosecution failed to prove it and did not bring any eye witnesses to testify against him.

But in his ruling, Justice Majanja said Musila’s firearm as well as phone records implicated him in the murder.

“When examined alongside the prosecution’s case, I find this defence wanting,” ruled Justice Majanja. The judgement will be read on May 2.