On July 22, a jury found three police officers and a civilian guilty of killing lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda, and their driver Joseph Muiruri.
Justice Jessie Lessit said that the murders were planned by Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, and a spy named Peter Ngugi. Officer Leonard Mwangi has been set free because the court could not find enough proof against him. Lessit said during the trial:
Willie Kimani was killed in a brutal way.
As the important decision was made, many people on social media talked about the brutal murders and how they were done.
According to the book Kenyans, in 2015, police officer Fredrick Leliman accidentally shot motorcyclist Josephat Mwenda when they stopped him. When Mwenda filed a complaint with the Independent Police Oversight Authority, he was wrongly charged with resisting arrest (IPOA).
When the case was taken over by the International Justice Mission, it was given to lawyer Willie Kimani. When officer Leliman made threats against Mwenda, it was hard for his lawyers to get him protected as a witness. But the latter was eventually called in by IPOA because of complaints of bad behavior.
After a court hearing in Mavoko in April 2016, lawyer Willie Kimani and his client Josephat Mwenda were taken into custody. The police told them they were being questioned about a robbery case in Meru. But Kimani and Mwenda were both freed in the end.
On June 23, 2016, as lawyer Kimani, his client Mwenda, and their taxi driver Muiruri were leaving court, they were taken. It is said that the police officers killed them around 10pm. On the other hand, the International Justice Mission had sent out a full-fledged search team to find the three men.
IJM then reported Willie Kimani, Josephat Mwenda, and Joseph Muiruri as missing and hired detectives to look into the case. The bodies of Kimani, Mwenda, and Muiruri were found in gunny bags in a river near Ol Donyo Sabuk on June 30, 2016.