The High Court in Nakuru has acquitted late powerful minister Mbiyu Koinange’s widow and six others charged for the death Moses Ole Mpoe and Parsaaiya Ole Kitu. Eddah Wanjiru Koinange and her step son David Njuno, had been charged for the murder of Mpoe and Paarsaiya Ole Kitu, a local wheat farmer.
The two were shot dead at close range by a suspected hired hit man riding on a motorcycle along the Nakuru-Eldoret Highway at Soilo junction on December, 3 2010. They were driving from mau Narok to Nakuru.
Prior to the killing, the land rights crusader was managing the 4,923 acre Muthera farm in Mau Narok on behalf of the Koinange family.
Nicholas Ngetich, Johnstone Sigei, Stephen Mwanga, Sanaga Mbukoi and Kiragu Macharia had also been charged alongside Wanjiru and Njuno before the Nakuru High court.
While acquitting Wanjiru and six accused persons, the court ruled that evidence provided by the state was based on suspicion and contained several loopholes which the prosecution failed to cover.
Ms. Wanjiru was first arrested on Saturday evening on October 8 2011 at her home in Kileleshwa and transported to Nakuru where she was booked at around 8pm and police indicated that they would charge her with the murder.
At the time of his death, Moses ole Mpoe was rumoured to have been embroiled in a tussle with the family of Mbiyu Koinange who were not pleased with his mode of management. The Koinange family is alleged to have claimed that Mpoe had begun to incite his kinsmen to invade Muthera farm terming it as Maasai ancestral land.
