On July 22, a jury found three police officers and one civilian guilty of killing attorney Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda, and their driver, Joseph Muiruri.
Judge Jessie Lessit said the murders were planned by Fredrick Leliman, Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku and a spy named Peter Ngugi. Officer Leonard Mwangi was released because the court could not find enough evidence against him. Lessit said during the trial:
Willie Kimani was brutally killed.
When the important decision was made, many people took to social media to speak out about the brutal killings and how they were carried out.
According to the book Kenyans, in 2015 police officer Fredrick Leliman accidentally shot and killed motorcyclist Josephat Mwenda when they stopped him. When Mwenda lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Inspectorate, he was falsely charged with resisting arrest (IPOA).
When the case was taken over by the International Justice Mission, it was turned over to attorney Willie Kimani. When the officer threatened Leliman Mwenda, his lawyers found it difficult to protect him as a witness. However, the latter was eventually called in by IPOA over complaints of misconduct.
After a court hearing in Mavoko in April 2016, lawyer Willie Kimani and his client Josephat Mwenda were taken into custody. The police informed them that they were being interrogated about a robbery in Meru. But Kimani and Mwenda were both freed in the end.
On June 23, 2016, when lawyer Kimani, his client Mwenda and their taxi driver Muiruri left the court, they were arrested. It is said that the police killed her around 10 p.m. 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 missing and assigned detectives to investigate the case. The bodies of Kimani, Mwenda and Muiruri were found in burlap sacks in a river near Ol Donyo Sabuk on June 30, 2016.