Relatives of the slain directors of a land-buying company in Murang'a are up in arms after new information emerged about how officers from the DCI bungled investigations into the chain murder of the 4 directors.
The Killers of Peter Kimani, Paul Muhuhi, Josphat Kibe and Zachary Chege are up until now in the wind after the last 4 suspects were acquited in July this year.
The families are irked by the fact that Justice Noel Ngugi indicated that the investigative bodies only performed what he termed a 'window-dressing' exercise in trying the suspects.
One of the witnesses, speaking to The Standard intimated that the case was doomed from the start.
He stated that failure by the police to record statements from key witnesses, indifferent response to distress calls, and disregard for spent cartridges collected by residents after the shootings denoted to either negligence or cover-up by detectives.
"Can you imagine a witness who told the police she witnessed a murder failing to record a statement? Even the judge was baffled that despite being at the murder scene, the police never bothered to take her as a witness. Is there something they know that we don't?" the relative is quoted.
This was concerning the wife of the late Peter Kimani who was left out of the list of witnesses despite telling the investigating officers that she had seen the gunman confronting her husband and shooting him dead.
After the killing, a witness is quoted asserting that the police did not take the matter seriously. He stated that two police officers who were first on the scene appeared drunk and did not even bother to comb the murder scene. The angry residents were forced to chase them away.
The land dispute that claimed the lives of the 4 directors is believed to have come to the fore after a private company associated with a CS adversely mentioned during the trial controversially acquired land without the consent of the members of the firm.
Justice Ngugi, who ruled on the case, reported that during the hearing, it had emerged that besides a CS, a governor, County Commissioner, MCA, and a chief were among those who benefitted from the disputed land.
The killings, he concluded, might have been an attempt to silence all those who were opposed to the fraudulent acquisition of their land.
The land-buying company formed in 1965 has had a history of murders ever since its inception. It is reported that in the past 20 years, 10 directors have been found dead and 5 have mysteriously disappeared.
To bring to an end these murders, President Kenyatta in 2015 ordered the lands ministry to quicken the issuance of title deeds to forestall the violence that had gripped Murang' a county.
