Kenyan police officers found guilty of murder of three including human rights lawyer

Three police officers in Kenya have been found guilty of murdering three men, including human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, six years after their bodies were found in a river.

Justice Jessie Lessit found police officers Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet and Sylvia Wanjiku as well as police informer Peter Ngugi guilty of murdering Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri on 23 June 2016.

A fourth police officer, Leonard Mwangi, was acquitted. Those found guilty will be sentenced at a later date.

The triple killing prompted exceptional outrage in Kenya, with hundreds of people protesting in the streets.

The high court judge revealed in gruesome detail how Kimani, who worked for International Justice Mission (IJM), was abducted while leaving Mavoko law courts in Nairobi and tortured and killed along with Mwenda and Muiruri. Their bodies were discovered a week later.

At the time Kimani was representing Mwenda, who had been shot and injured by police.

Police killings have long been an issue in Kenya. The Kenyan independent policing oversight authority (Ipoa) has received and processed 20,979 complaints in the 11 years since it was established, but only 3,437 investigations have been completed. By the end of last year, there had been 17 convictions and 141 cases filed before courts.

Meanwhile killings by police officers have risen. According to Missing Voices, a group of organisations investigating unlawful killings in Kenya, 72 people have been killed by the police this year. Last year, 187 people were killed, up from 158 in 2020.

Other cases pending trial involving police officers include that of Carilton Maina, a University of Leeds student who was shot dead in December 2018. An officer pleaded not guilty to murder in April 2020. As of April 2022, the case had been adjourned at least three times and still had not gone to a full hearing.

Yassin Moyo died aged 13 after he was shot as he stood on his balcony watching police enforce the new Covid-19 curfew on 30 March 2020. On 23 June 2020, police officer Duncan Ndiema pleaded not guilty to his murder. The case has been adjourned numerous times and has yet to be heard.