Robbery with violence suspect tells court he was tortured and forced to sign statement 

While defending himself before the Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina, Mustapha Kimani told the court that the statement which was produced the prosecution was not his and he signed it out of the torture he went through in the hands police officers, adding he never read or understood what they wrote.

“It was not out of my consent your honour, they beat me forcing to sign. The torture they took me through led me to sign admitting things I don’t know. I was wrongly arrested and charged with the offence before this court,” he told the court.

Mustapha claims he was selling secondhand clothes in Kangemi Market at the time of his arrest on May 13, 2015 and that he he did not know or meet most of his co-accused persons before the arrest.

His defence contradicts testimonies adduced before the court by arresting officers and other witnesses.

“Your honour the arresting officers testified to have arrested me in Ruiru, Murera area jointly with the fifth accused person which is a lie,” he told the court.

He said that he was arrested at Zimmerman in Roysambu, jointly with his friend Edward Gathuka, who was helping him to look for a kiosk to expand his mitumba business.

Mustapha also told the court that they were put in different vehicles after he was blindfolded with his pullover and found himself in a Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) office whose location he could not tell.

During the hearing, the court heard that he never questioned the arresting officers on the issue he raised on the place of arrest

He also denied to know the other five co-accused persons, which contradicts the testimony by the arresting officers who testified that Mustapha led them to the house belonging to the first accused person Eric Muyiera Isabwa.

When he was asked by the state prosecutor Willy Momanyi where he was on the fateful night when Muchai was murdered on February 6, 2015,  he said he could not remember but probably was at home with his grandmother in Kangemi.

During the hearing of the case, a protected witness XYZ, who the prosecution indicated was a taxi driver, had testified that, at around 3:30 am on the night when the robbery took place, a client contacted him and found him parking the cab at a petrol station and boarded the vehicle and directed him on where he could pick other persons.

The witness testified that he knew Mustapha since he was the one hired the taxi and he was in constant communication with other persons they later picked up, namely Isabwa, Raphael Kimani alias Butcher and Margaret Njeri.

He further stated that Mustapha had a pistol.

According to the Safaricom call data before the court, it indicated there was communication on the fateful day between Mustapha and Kimani.

Questioned on the same by the prosecutor what the communication was about if he did not know him, Mustapha told the court that he picked the number on a poster in Kangemi which was designated for making orders of roasted meat.

“I picked the number on a poster in Kangemi Market which advertised barbecue and was given for making orders by the interested customers, so I do not know the owner of the number in person. Different people used to bring my orders,” Mustapha said.

Mustapha jointly with six others were charged with the offence of robbery with violence where they allegedly hijacked and robbed two sisters, Gladys Waithira and Irene Muthoni, before putting  them in the trunk of the vehicle.

The two are eyewitnesses in the case where Mustapha and his co-accused are charged with the murder of Muchai, police constables Samuel Lekakeny Montata and Samuel Kimathi Kairingia and driver Stephen Ituu Wambugu.

The two sisters testified earlier that their vehicle was used as a getaway from the scene.

Mustapha was charged alongside six others – Isabwa, Stephen Astiva, Kimani, Jane Wanjiru, Njeri and Simon Wambugu.