Friday, February 3, 2023 –Justice Jessie Lessit has today handed a death sentence to Lawyer Willy Kimani killers.
Making the historic ruling today Friday February 3 morning, Lessit ruled that the four officers – Fredrick Leliman (the main suspect), Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, and informer Peter Ngugi – were directly linked to the murder of the Nairobi lawyer.
She would start by decreeing a death penalty for Fredrick Liliman as the second accused was handed a whopping 30 years behind bars.
The third accused, according to the sentence, will have to contend with serving 24 years in prison as the police informer was served two decades in jail.
“First accused is sentenced to death in each of the three counts, the second accused is sentenced to thirty years imprisonment in each of the three terms with the prison terms running concurrently,” she read the judgement.
Lessit, without blinking an eye, went on to read the remaining part of the ruling as the suspects waited in the dock pensively.
“The third accused is sentenced to 24 years imprisonment in each of the three counts with the prison terms running concurrently, and the fifth accused is sentenced to twenty years imprisonment,” Justice Jessie Lessit stated.
And though the judge had a difficult time punishing Sylvia Wanjiru because she was the youngest by the time the crime was committed, it was not easy to leave her unpunished due to the weight of her participation.
Luckily, Lessit asked the prison department to put in consideration the period the accused had already served behind bars.
They also have14 days to lodge an appeal.
Kimani’s case kicked off 2016 when his client, boda boda rider Josephat Mwenda, was accidentally shot by police officer Fredrick Leliman who started threatening the lawyer and the boda boda rider.
This fight would then culminate into Lawyer Kimani’s murder and his body alongside two others were thrown into Ol-Donyo Sabuk River, almost 70 kilometres away from the crime scene.
