Kianjokoma brothers: Police officers sue to block murder charges

Six police officers implicated in the deaths of two Embu brothers have move to court to block the DPP from charging them with murder.

According to their lawyer Danstan Omari, the officers are instead seeking an inquest into the deaths of Benson Njiru and Emmanuel Mutura.

The police officers who were implicated are Benson Mputhia, Consolata Kariuki, Nicholas Cheruyoit, Martin Wanyama, Lilian Chemuna and James Mwaniki. 

In their petition, they have sued the DPP,  Inspector General of Police and Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

They say the next course of action should be an inquest and not prosecution in court.

The officers, who have been in cell since last week, insist that the brothers jumped out of a moving police vehicle then suffered fatal injuries.

The Kianjakoma six say evidence recorded from two suspects who had been arrested alongside the deceased for disobeying curfew rules “witnessed the two jump from the speeding police truck ferrying them for detention at Manyatta police station.”

When police arrived at the station, the court was told, they noticed two of the 10 suspects they had arrested for violating curfew orders were missing.

They were, however, informed by other suspects the two had jumped out of the high speed driven police truck.

Police returned to the same route and “recovered the lifeless bodies of the two at the road where they hit the tarmac.”

“Police never took the two brothers into the forest where they allegedly clobbered them to death,” Mr Omari said.

The lawyer said the incident was treated as a traffic matter and the police vehicle was taken for inspection then handed over again to Manyatta police station for use in patrols.

Mr Omari stated that the DPP had directed the six be charged with murder before the truth into the cause of the death had been known.

The six are asking the court to restrain the DPP from charging them with murder pending the outcome of the inquest.

Exhumation request

The suspects want the court to order that the bodies of the two brothers be exhumed for a second autopsy and that they be represented by a lawyer and a pathologist of their choice.

“The suspects are asking the High Court to grant an exhumation order to enable them participate in a second autopsy on the bodies,” Mr Omari states in court papers filed in court.

The lawyer says the postmortem report already filed by the government pathologist shows that the brothers died from injuries inflicted by a blunt object.

“The officers were never given an opportunity to participate in the first postmortem of the two brothers when it was conducted,” Mr Omari states.

The officers have also denied that the vehicle in which the brothers were being ferried to Manyatta Police Station alongside eight other suspects was not burned by police but by angry protestors.

They are asking the court to free them on bond pending determination of the application filed at the Constitutional and Judicial Review Division.

The six are further asking the court order to direct the police to return their mobile phones so that they access their bank accounts to withdraw school and legal fees.

Mr Omari says the rights of the suspects have been infringed and they should not be condemned unheard.

The suspects were taken for mental exams August 25 by the DPP in readiness for the murder charges.

The lawyer discounted averments that senior police officers in Embu County were transferred as a cover-up of the incident.

The Kianjakoma six were detained last week by Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate David Ndungi until August 30 to enable police finalise investigations.

“The court cannot close its eyes to the fact that the six are police officers and can interfere with witnesses,” Mr Ndungi ruled.

The case is being investigated by IPOA.

Mr Omari said the six have already been sacked from the police force.

[email protected]