Boinnet: NGO complained about principal suspect in murder

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet received a complaint letter against the conduct of Sergeant Fredrick Leliman in relation to Josephat Mwenda early this year.

Boinnet said that the International Justice Mission (IJM) wrote to him complaining that the allegations of being in possession of bhang and other traffic offences were false.

”The letter was received in our offices on February 28. Basically, IJM was complaining that the bhang and traffic offence allegations against Mwenda were untrue. It was taken up by our internal investigative mechanism. It then emerged that the complaint was about two active court cases. We were held back because we didn’t want to interfere with an ongoing court process,” said Boinnet.The saga begun in April last year when Leliman attempted to arrest Josephat Mwenda while he was riding on a motorbike.

“We do not know exactly what happened but Mwenda ended up being shot on the right arm and the Sergeant took him to a private hospital. Later on, he arrested him again and took him to Mlolongo police station and was charged for allegedly being in possession of bhang, resisting arrest and gambling. In December, he was again arrested by the same officer and taken to court in Mavoko where he was charged with traffic offenses. On the hearing date, lawyer Willie Kimani came accompanied by a taxi driver and his client. At about 11.30am, the case ended and that appears to have been the last time to have been heard of,” he said.

“But at about 4.30pm on the same day, someone who says he was passing by the container where the three were being held said he heard someone knocking from inside the container and beckoned him to come close. “He threw a note on a tissue paper with a number asking him to call his wife. That paper is in our possession and is part of our evidence,” said Boinnet. On the same day at about 1am in the morning, officers in Kiambu recovered a taxi that the victims had been riding in before they were captured. “That same morning, IJM officers went to Flying Squad offices in CID headquarters in Nairobi and recorded that matter. That’s when that investigations file was open and we have been active on that matter ever since until the discovery of the bodies in Thika,” said the IG.

Boinnet said detectives have put together sufficient evidence against Senior Sergeant Fredrick Leliman, a principal suspect in the matter.

“As of now, we have lots of circumstantial evidence and other technical evidence to prove that Sergeant Leliman, one way or the other, has something to do with the disappearance of those people,” he told The Standard on Sunday.

Corporal Stephen Chebulet and Constable Silvia Wanjiku were fused in the murder as they were officers on duty on June 23, when the three disappeared. It is said that they were both in the plot or one of them might have participated in the executions.

According to Boinnet, there are two crucial individuals who say they saw the the lawyer, his client and the taxi driver in the container which is used as a holding cell.

Investigations, added the IG, have also established that one of the suspects in police custody has had an altercation with one of the victims for the last one year. “It is clear that the principal suspect in this case has heard an altercation with one of the victims for the last one year. But it is still not clear what could have been the issue,” said Boinnet.

The IG further said several international investigators have offered support in the investigations.

“I can confirm that offers from certain foreign entities have requested to join us and we are glad to accept their support. We want to be open. Whatever these fellows did was on their own volition and not a part of any institutionalised policy. They do not represent anything we stand for. We do not have a policy of extrajudicial killing and we do not condone any wrong doing by a police officer,” he said.

The taxi was found at 1am on the day the three were abducted by officers in Kiambu. On the morning of Friday June 24, the investigations file was opened when IJM officers went to Flying Squad offices to report the disappearance of Mwenda, Kimani and Muiruri.

“It is important to underscore that these are among the bad guys among us who do wrong things and in many other organisations there are ways of disciplining them. The law of the land is there. They did whatever they did on their own accord. We do not have any institutionalised policy to kill people. We do not have death squads at all,” Boinnet said.

“Just as LSK and other bodies deal with rogue members of their profession, we deal with rogue officers according to the law. If one lawyer decides to con a client, you cannot condemn members of the entire legal profession. We have a sergeant, corporal and a constable to tell us what they may have anything to do with the killing of those people but there is a possibility that either one, a principal suspect and that heinous act might have involved, him, one of the two or the two,” he said.