For a police officer who rose to fame as one of Kenya’s heroes during the 2013 Westgate Mall attack, the downfall and ultimate death of former Mlolongo OCS Stephen Lelei is nothing short of dumbfounding.
Lelei, a celebrated officer turned murder suspect died on June 15 while receiving treatment at the Kiambu hospital.
His family confirmed his passing to the press but did not disclose his cause of death. Among the people who celebrated his life was former Nairobi governor Mike Sonko.
“Rest in Peace Westgate attack hero cop Stephen Lelei,” Sonko stated.
That Lelei was nothing short of a hero within police circles is not in dispute. He was after all one of the first responders in the 2013 Westgate Mall terror attack that killed 68 people.
Popularly known as Ocampo, Lelei who was among the first nine officers at the scene was shot in the leg during the attack as he tried to evacuate as many people as possible before the arrival of special tactical units.
For his efforts and bravery, retired president Uhuru Kenyatta awarded him a Silver Star medal and recognised him as one of Kenya’s heroes.
Yet, as he breathed his last on Saturday, Lelei was handcuffed on his bed at the Kiambu hospital.
Among the last people he probably saw last in his dying minutes was a Kenya Prisons warder watching over him with a gun in hand making sure that he did not try to escape from his hospital bed.
If there was ever some truth in the phrase ‘what goes around comes around,’ then karma had been served in the circumstances that Lelei found himself in the last hours of his life.
Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and their driver Joseph Muiruri were killed shortly after filing a complaint of police brutality.
The three were abducted on June 23, 2016 shortly after leaving Mavoko Law Courts, Athi River, where they were pursuing a case against the police.
They were then driven to their deaths at 7pm in a thicket in Mlolongo, in a Nissan Wingroad belonging to a police officer.
At the time of his death, Kimani was working for International Justice Mission, a global legal rights group that helps investigate and document police killings and brutality.
Kimani’s body was found with wrists bound with rope. Three of his fingers had been chopped off and his eyes appeared to have been gouged out.
In her judgement issued in February 2023 Judge Jessie Lessit, said evidence produced during the trial had shown that the murders were premeditated and the victims brutally tortured and killed.
“No-one should experience what these three went through, especially from the same people mandated to protect them,” said Lessit.
Justice Lessit while terming the crime as “a most foul murder, an execution that was most heinous” slapped police officer Fredrick Ole Leliman who is believed to have been the mastermind of the crime, with a death sentence.
His former colleagues and co-accused Stephen Lelei and Sylvia Wanjohi were sentenced to 30 and 24 years respectively while their informant Peter Ngugi got 20 years in jail.
According to evidence produced in court Kimani, Mwendwa and Muiruri were held for hours at a container turned into a cell at the Mlolongo Police Station where Lelei was the boss.
The former police officer defended himself saying that he was not at work that day. He also said that there was no evidence that his gun had been used in the murders.
“I was not at the scene of the shooting and all the 10 guns that were tested, including mine, turned negative. I don’t know how they arrived at the conclusion I was involved,” he said.
While the court agreed that his gun was not used, his claim that he was not at work was thrown out. This is after a tracking of his cell phone showed that he was at the station that day.
Additionally, Peter Ngugi, the police informant whose evidence largely helped prosecution to nail the case told the court that he was introduced to the main suspect Peter Leliman by Lelei.
In his confession, Ngugi the informant, narrated how he met Leliman in April 2016 just two months before Willie Kimani was murdered through his ‘friend’ Lelei.
“During my visit to the OCS, I came to know officer Leliman. In 2016 while at Mlolongo Police Post Canteen, Leliman approached me and told me he needed some assistance from me,” said Ngugi.
“He (Leliman) told me there was a case that was bothering him. He revealed to me that he had previously shot and injured a person and that the injured man (Mwenda) was really pushing for his dismissal and was being assisted by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) in the case.”
Leliman allegedly told Ngugi that the case against him was being heard on June 23, 2016, and that he had no other option but to eliminate the complainant.
Interestingly, Willie Kimani’s death was not the only controversy about Lelei.
In 2014, just a year after Lelei had saved dozens of Kenyans in the Westgate attack, his wife died in a mysterious fire incident that was allegedly caused by an explosion in their car along Thika Road.
Mrs Matilda Lelei, 36 and a mother of three succumbed to injuries after the incident that occurred on an early Saturday morning near the Safari Park hotel.
Lelei said they were driving home on Saturday at 1 am when an explosion occurred leading to a huge fire.
“I managed to park on the road side and jumped out as the fire broke out engulfing the entire car. It is unfortunate my wife died later,” said Lelei.
The two were heading to their Kasarani residence when the incident happened. Lelei said he had picked Matilda from a meeting she had in the city and they were heading home when the fire broke out.
“She had been in a meeting of other women while I was on duty before I went to pick her. I don’t know the nature of the explosive device that caused this fire,” he said.