On the afternoon of September 21, 2011, President Mwai Kibaki received news that one of his lawyers, Anthony Nahashon Ngunjiri, had been shot dead by junior police officers . An agitated Kibaki threw the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) into a spin after demanding to know how and why it happened.
Ngunjiri was the lead lawyer alongside Pheroze Nowrojee in Kibaki’s 1997 presidential petition against President Daniel Arap Moi. Moi had been declared winner with 2,445,801 votes against Kibaki’s 1,895,527.
Senior Counsel Pheroze Nowrojee.
Photo credit: File | Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
“Our boss then, Mr Ndegwa Muhoro, called the then head of the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU), Mr Richard Katola, who in turn called me and demanded that I file a report about the incident within two hours,” recalls a sleuth then attached to the Old Nairobi Area DCI base.
“An agitated Katola told me that it was a direct assignment from the President and if I valued my job, I was better off abandoning what else I was doing to attend to the issue.”
Former Director of Criminal Investigations boss Ndegwa Muhoro.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The officer, who is still serving as a senior DCI officer in the Eastern region, confided to Nation.Africa that the death had touched a raw nerve in the ultimate power of the land.
“Even before I had figured out how to set about the task of banging up the report within the demanded two hours, I received a message from Mr Katola that read: Forwarded from NIS One (Michael) Gichangi: Ngunjiri brief: A.N Ngunjiri Advocates, State One advocate since 1997, proprietor of One World Bar in Park Road, shot dead at Garden Estate, suspects two Kasarani Police Station officers,” he reveals.
The bar in Park Road (now the site of a chips shop) was known to be patronised by senior power brokers, especially in security. Ngunjiri was extremely influential and people lobbying for State House favours, especially those from his native Gatanga constituency and the broader Murang’a County, sought him like medicine.
The Katola message concluded: “Suspected assassination, highly sensitive, handle with care, State House interested.”
Yet another problematic assignment
The officer says he felt honoured to hear that he was doing the job for the President, but the task at hand was simple because if the two officers who had shot the lawyer and the scene of the crime were known, “the assignment only pertained to securing the scene, getting hold of the suspects and recording their statements and deducing an advance status report for the powers that be”. He says he hurriedly assembled a team of seven officers, who drove to the scene and it turned out to be yet another problematic assignment as it also involved a former senior civil servant identified as Joseph Macharia.
Beside the lawyer’s body were papers that indicated that he was acting for former Kieni MP Munene Kairu and had gone to the private home of Mr Macharia to serve him with court papers in a property case that involved the two.
“It immediately dawned on me that power plays had resulted in the fatal shooting. Here we had Kibaki’s lawyer acting on instructions of a President’s political friend, serving a senior civil servant who too was friends with State House. It became very clear that it was a game of egos that clashed with fatal consequences,” the officer narrated.
Former President Mwai Kibaki.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The Katola team – in utter display of how State House can lord over to confuse operations – was joined by another led by its Nairobi Deputy DCI boss Julius Ruteere, as well as Nairobi police boss Anthony Kibuchi.
The panic and confusion of the Kibaki interest in the incident was exemplified when three reports were filed – one by the Katola team, another by Katola’s boss Mr Ruteere and the third by Mr Kibuchi.
But all the reports told of one thing – that Ngunjiri had gone to serve Mr Macharia with court papers in a property civil suit filed against him by Mr Kairu.
“Mr Macharia mobilised a group of youths to block Mr Ngunjiri from serving him. In the melee that ensued, Mr Ngunjiri drew out a pistol and the youths ran away. By then Mr Macharia had called his connections in the police and reported that he was under attack by an armed thug. Police responded and found the man holding a Ceska pistol … Told to surrender, he defied and police opened fire,” the Ruteere team report read.
The Katola team’s report indicated that Mr Macharia knew Ngunjiri well and his calling the police was not for the purpose of inducing the lawyer’s death but to help him escape being served.
Those were the days when the law had not been amended to include other forms of serving suit papers. One had to serve the respondent in person.
Ngunjiri appears to have had his fate tied to serving suit papers, because in 2011 he had lost the Kibaki petition on the grounds of the same service.
Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal concurred that Kibaki had not served Moi (who had been gazetted as duly elected President on January 5, 1998) in person with the January 22, 1998 petition. Ngunjiri had argued that it was not possible to serve Moi personally owing to the layers of protection that he enjoyed as President.
On December 10, 1999, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court ruling that Ngunjiri, on behalf of Kibaki, had not personally served Moi with suit papers – and 11 years later, he died trying to personally serve a respondent in a property suit.
The law has since been amended to allow court orders to be served to respondents through alternative means, including publication in newspapers.
Regarding Ngunjiri’s death, the Kibuchi team report named the officers who had responded to Mr Macharia’s distress call as Mohammed Ismail Madey and Mr Abdi Elmoge Abdi. The Ruteere team added that “the two have since been arrested, under interrogation and will be charged, as we search for Mr Macharia who has since escaped”.
Mr Mohammed Ismail Madey (right), Mr Abdi Elmoge Abdi (left) and Mr David Kihara Muchiri leave a Nairobi court where they were charged with murdering lawyer Antony Nahashon Ngunjiri on September 21. They did not plead and were remanded in custody until October 3 when the case would be heard.
Photo credit: File | Paul Waweru | Nation Media Group
The three reports were consolidated into one by the NIS and forwarded to the President. In his address to reporters, it was apparent that Mr Kibuchi (now retired) was sympathetic to his boys but the interest around the issue offered no chance to protect them.
“My officers mistook the lawyer for a gangster…Before the officers arrived, he had been beaten up by youths hired by the property owner…We are investigating whether he died of the injuries of the beating or the gunshots,” the police boss had responded.
The post-mortem report filed by government pathologist Johansen Oduor indicated that “the cause of death of the deceased was head injury due to gunshot wounds from a low velocity firearm at close range”.
The Nation learnt that State House pressure regarding the case eased when a report was filed that the two officers alongside two civilians had been charged with the murder of the Kibaki lawyer.
The report prepared by Mr Ruteere read: “Kindly note that today on 24 September 2011 we have charged the following suspects with the murder of Anthony Nahashon Ngunjiri contrary to Section 203 as read with section 204 of the penal code: 1) Mohammed Ismail Madey 2) Mr Abdi Elmoge Abdi 3) David Kihara Muchiri 4) Joseph Muchiri Macharia. For reference, the case is referenced No 75 of 2011 at the High Court.”
The case is still pending even after Judge James Wakiaga put all of the accused on their defense on July 17, 2019. Kibaki died on April 21 and was buried on Saturday.
