Kenyan police officers charged with killing IJM lawyer, two others

A Kenyan high court on Monday charged four police officers with murder in the June killings of U.S.-employed human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client, and a taxi driver. The murders sparked outrage, with many rights groups and protesters calling for an end to extrajudicial killings.

Court documents identified the four officers as Leonard Maina, Silvia Wanjohi, Frederick Leliman, and Stephen Morogo. The suspects, who pleaded not guilty, each face three counts of murder. The judge ordered the suspects to remain in custody until Aug. 16, when they will be allowed to apply for bail.

“Yesterday, it was encouraging to see some progress in the investigation and judicial process,” Human Rights Watch senior researcher Maria Burnett said in a statement yesterday. “The case is an opportunity to shed light on what happened and respond to the public’s anxiety about the risks in demanding greater police accountability.”

Kimani worked as a human rights lawyer with U.S.-based rights group International Justice Mission. He had filed a complaint alleging police shot and wounded his client, Josephat Mwenda, in April 2015. Security officers instead charged Mwenda with offenses that included drug possession and resisting arrest. Kimani and Mwenda, along with their taxi driver, Jospeh Muiruri, disappeared after their court appearance on June 23. Authorities found their bodies in a river a week later.

Dr. Andrew Gachii, an independent pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination, revealed the bodies showed signs of torture. Gachii told the court in a report that Mwenda’s skull was fractured and his testicles crushed. The other bodies had injuries sustained from a blunt object.

Transparency International, an anti-corruption coalition, has called Kenya’s police force the most corrupt institution in the country. The security force has faced accusations of extrajudicial killings and other forms of abuses. Some 300 people marched through the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to protest the men’s disappearances and call for an end to police executions.

“Tragically, Willie, Josephat, and Joseph represent just three of the thousands of innocent Kenyans who have suffered under police abuse of power,” International Justice Mission said in a statement after the murders. “Their deaths must serve as an abrupt wake-up call to the injustices committed daily against the poor and vulnerable around the world.”