Woman Charged in Muchai Killing Says She Was Unaware of Offense Until Arraignment
A robbery with violence accused has defended herself before a Milimani Magistrate court by saying she never knew the reason for her arrest until she was arraigned.
Margaret Njeri who is charged alongside six others in a robbery with violence matter that revolves around the murdering of former Kabete Member of Parliament George Muchai says she is innocent and arrested unaware of the offence.
When she defended herself before the Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina, Njeri indicated how she was arrested in a neighbor’s house while chatting with officers who violently broke into the house.
She narrated the ordeal of how she closed her grocery kiosk for a lunch break on the fateful afternoon when she heard people running from the main road in different directions some trespassing in the unfenced compound,
“I was in the company of my neighbor in her house when I heard chaos and people running. I could hear the voice of a man asking in Swahili, ‘Huyo alikuwa na bag ameenda na wapi’ the one who had a bag went in which direction,” she told the court.
Njeri said they did not open the door until they heard a loud bang with an order to open. When she peeped through the window, she saw a battalion of officers looming outside holding their guns.
They were forced to lie down on the floor until they were ordered to get into her house.
She claims the officers were violent breaking doors of other houses and forcing the occupants to lie down,
“When I enquired what was going on, they bartered me to the ground. I never got into my house but some of the officers were inside searching what I could not tell. They bundled me in the trunk of their car.” she said.
She denied knowing the first accused person, Eric Muyiera Isabwa who according to police inventory, they were arrested in the same house located in Kinoo 87 and recovered a G3 rifle and ammunition that were concealed in a blue bag.
Njeri told the court that she met Isabwa for the first time with her co-accused in court on February 16, 2015, under the miscellaneous application for further detention. She added that was when she understood the reason behind her arrest.
She dismissed the inventory indicating it was maliciously by the arresting officers to implicate her with an offence she never committed.
Njeri 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, put them in the trunk of the vehicle, and became eyewitnesses on the shooting which took Muchai’s life jointly with his driver and his bodyguards.
The two sisters testified earlier that their vehicle was used as a getaway from the scene.
Njeri was charged alongside six others Eric Isabwa, Stephen Astiva, Raphael Kimani, Jane Wanjiru, Mustapha Kimani, and Simon Wambugu.
The seven are facing another capital offence of murder that arose from a gangland-style killing of the former legislature.
