Trader Denies Telling Senior Officer to Kill Man Who Assaulted Him

14 June 2011

Nairobi — A businessman has been accused of instructing a former senior police officer to carry out a killing.

Mr Alexander Chepkonga was alleged to have directed former Inspector Dickson Mwangi Munene to kill Dr James Ng’ang’a Muiruri on January 24, 2009.

Senior State counsel Job Kaigai, while cross-examining Mr Chepkonga, accused him of telling Mr Munene to execute Dr Muiruri, who had assaulted him the previous night.

The businessman denied the claims. “That is not true. I did not instruct the police officer to carry out the murder,” he told the court.

During the hearing, Mr Chepkonga declined to answer five questions from trial judge Mohammed Warsame.

Mr Justice Warsame had asked him: “Why did you follow Munene and the deceased? Why did you assume Munene was going to arrest the deceased?

“Why did you leave your friends at the Crooked Q club? How did you know the route they took from the club? Did you not fear being beaten again by the deceased?”

Both Mr Munene and Mr Chepkonga are charged with murdering Dr Muiruri, son of former assistant minister Patrick Muiruri.

On Tuesday, Mr Chepkonga told the court that he was beaten by Dr Muiruri at the Crooked Q club, where they were having drinks.

“I was beaten when I went to separate Muiruri and Mark Sagini Monyenye,” he said.

To settle scores

The accused said he assumed Mr Munene would arrest Dr Muiruri over the assault and denied that he had threatened to settle scores downstairs.

Recalling the night’s events, the accused said that after the incident at the club he caught up with Mr Munene and Dr Muiruri at the Westlands roundabout, where the policeman’s vehicle had been blocked by the latter’s vehicle.

“I saw Munene trying to handcuff Muiruri. There was a struggle then I heard a loud bang. I got frightened and drove back to the club, where I told my friends what had happened,” he said.

The accused have denied murdering Dr Muiruri. Mr Munene said that Dr Muiruri shot himself when he tried to grab the gun.

The hearing resumes on June 27 and 28.

AllAfrica – All the Time