Murder of businessman after land deal goes sour looks like a horror movie

By BEATRICE WAMUYU

Even the best laid plans can sometimes go awry. No one knows this better than the people who murdered Lawrence Githinji Magondu, a Nairobi businessman and land dealer, in February 2000.

Magondu’s killing had all the ingredients of a cold-blooded and meticulously planned murder. Things seemed to have worked out well for the murderers after his execution  until they made one fatal mistake.

The ‘folly’ turned out to be a blessing for the late Magondu’s driver, Harrison King’ori, who had been clobbered and left for the dead. But he refused to die and later recounted grim details of a murder most foul. When good Samaritans stumbled on him and rescued him, he became the prime witness in the murder trial that followed.

He was put under 24-hour police protection.

Telephone call

A teacher who pursued several interests before settling on buying and selling property, Magondu had made friends with former Commissioner of Lands Wilson Gachanja, according to court records.

But after some time, their relationship deteriorated. Gachanja would later be named as a suspect in the murder, but was released after the court ruled there was no evidence linking him to the homicide. Also released with him were three other suspects, Agnes Wambui Gicharu, Stephen Kiringu Kanyoro and Ernest Macharia Munyi.

It was believed the murder was planned after a land deal gone sour.

It all started after Magondu received a call from a land buyer who had previously visited him in his office and alerted him about the possibility of buying a plot.

The broker, identified as Wilson Mwangi Thiribu, told him that they wanted to buy the land right away. When Magondu received the call, he was with his driver King’ori, and he decided to go to Kitengela right away. 

They arrived early enough and waited for the buyer.  Later, a white Toyota Corolla arrived and was parked just behind Magondu’s. Alighting from the vehicle were five people.

There was Thiribu, his sister Anna Ngonyo and three other men identified as Stephen Wambua Kamau, Stephen Kagia and David Karugu Njuguna. Thiribu and Ngonyo were both smartly dressed.

The other three were shabbily dressed; Thiribu referred to them as his workmen. He claimed he had carried them so they would fence the land as soon as it was declared theirs.

As negotiations began, the price of the land was agreed as Sh1.4 million, down from Sh1.5 million. They promised to issue a banker’s cheque on the very same day since Ngonyo was to leave for Switzerland.

Later, Thiribu showed Magondu a roll of barbed wire and two sharp pangas together with all the materials to be used in fencing. He then requested Magondu to take them around so as to familiarise themselves with the area. Ngonyo also wanted to scan the area to see its suitability for a Makuti bar, which she planned to construct on the site.

They made several rounds. Thiribu then gave King’ori Sh1,000 and asked him to look for a good place to make lunch as they surveyed the area some more. King’ori was left with two men — Wambua and Karugu.

The moment the gang was waiting for had come. The other team drove about four kilometres from Kitengela, reaching an uninhabited section overlooking Nairobi National Park.

There, they killed Magondu with the fencing materials they had shown him earlier. His body was discovered later after a frantic search.

Meanwhile, King’ori waited for the team at a bar in Kitengela, where he had also ordered lunch.

He saw the vehicle his boss had rode in pass by and wondered why the team was not stopping for the food. But Karugu asked him to follow the car, claiming Magondu was inside and the group wanted to inspect another plot along Mombasa Road.

They took him to a secluded spot and clobbered him.

Believing he was dead, they left him for the wolves. After investigations, Gachanja’s wife Elizabeth Gitiri, her sister Rose Njoki Muruatetu and their brother Francis Karioko were charged with Magondu’s murder alongside nine other people.

Gitiri together with her sister Muruatetu, her brother Karioko, Wilson Thiribu Mwangi, Stephen Wambua Kamau, David Karugu Njuguna, and Stephen Kagia Njoki were found guilty and sentenced to hang.

The then Magistrate Msagha Mbogholi was shocked to learn that Anna Njoki was six months pregnant after being held in custody for two years. She escaped the death penalty by a whisker.

In 2011, Gachanja’s wife was released after a successful appeal.