Retired Commissioner of Police Michael Mbugua, along with two others, Christopher Njau Mbugua and Charles Kinyanjui Mbugua, has been formally charged with the alleged murder of George Njui.
The trio appeared before Justice Kanyi Kimondo, facing accusations of killing Njui on December 23rd of the previous year in Riruta, Dagoretti, Nairobi County. The victim was purportedly accused of stealing a wire mesh valued at Ksh.1,000.
During the court proceedings, all three defendants entered pleas of not guilty. Despite their plea, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) opposed their release on bail. The DCI argued that key witnesses were reluctant to cooperate due to fear of reprisals from Michael Mbugua, who recently retired from the Administration Police Service.
“Some other key witnesses who were able to identify (Njau and Kinyanjui) at a secondary scene away from Mr Mbugua’s house have since developed cold feet in as far as cooperating with the investigators is concerned, citing fear of reprisals from the suspects,” stated the court.
The court is scheduled to make a decision on whether to grant them bail or not on February 21 of this year. The alleged offense occurred at the residence of the first accused, Michael Mbugua, who is the biological father of the second accused and a foster parent to the third accused.
The investigating officer raised concerns about Mbugua’s alleged tampering with CCTV footage capturing the events of the incident at his home. According to court documents, “Investigations from the DCI Photographic section have since established that the CCTV footage as installed at the home of the 1st Accused and which captured the commission of the said offence was tampered with before it was retrieved to aid in investigations.”
“A review of the CCTV footage has now revealed that ONLY the events of the day of the incident being 23rd December 2023 were conveniently deleted before they were surrendered to the investigators.”
