Kin of taxi drivers killed by police tell of agony

Mr Wilson Mwangi holds a picture of his son, the late Mugweru Mwangi, who was among seven taxi drivers shot dead by the police in Kawangware, Nairobi in this picture taken on March 12, 2010. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The families of the taxi drivers are living in agony as the men were breadwinners.
  • The six Administration Police officers were arrested in connection with the killings, charged jointly with murder and were sentenced to death.
  • Mr Mwangi is now pursuing the petition filed to get compensation for the families of the taxi drivers.

Four years ago, seven taxi drivers were shot dead in Kawangware, Nairobi County by police officers.

Six Administration Police officers were arrested and charged over the murders but were later acquitted by the Court of Appeal.

The families of the taxi drivers are living in agony as the men were breadwinners.

Widowed with four children, Mercy Nyambura is the sole breadwinner in the family and struggles to give emotional support to her children, who miss their father every day.

“Sometimes my eldest child stares at a photo of their father silently and tears start rolling freely. I feel their pain of losing him at their tender ages,” said Ms Nyambura in an interview at her home in Kawangware.

On the cold night of March 10, 2010, her husband, Harry Gideon Thuku, and six other taxi drivers were killed on Naivasha Road near a Shell BP filling station in Kawangware.

The six Administration Police officers were arrested in connection with the killings, charged jointly with murder and were sentenced to death on December 18, 2012.

They appealed against the sentence.

The Court of Appeal, led by a three-judge bench of Justices Erastus Githinji, Daniel Musinga and Jamila Mohammed, quashed the death convictions on the grounds that the officers acted in self-defence.

The ruling, read on June 27, 2014, freed the six police officers, leaving the families of the dead taxi drivers devastated.

In the appeal ruling, the judges stated that though no evidence was presented that the taxi drivers were armed with guns, there was evidence that they defied a police order to stop and confronted the officers.

“I had seen a ray of hope where I had banked my hopes on the compensation that we were to receive, to start over a new life and support my children,” said Ms Nyambura.

“After that ruling I felt like my world had been torn apart. I immediately went into a state of confusion with anger deep in my heart as I felt justice had been denied,” she added amid sobs.

Ms Nyambura, who works as a casual labourer to make ends meet, has managed to take her first-born, aged 16, to high school while the other three children aged 6, 10 and 13, are still in primary school.

Mbugua Mureithi, who represented the families of the deceased in court, hopes that the Director of Public Prosecutions will pursue all constitutional avenues to take the case to the Supreme Court.

“We had filed a petition for the compensation of these families just after the High Court convicted the officers, but now we are still interpreting the Court of Appeal ruling to see if the petition will still stand,” he added.

The family of another victim, Joseph Thiongo Njoroge, was also optimistic that they will be compensated.

Simon Njoroge, a brother of the deceased, remembers vividly that he found his brother’s body under a lorry at the crime scene with multiple bullet wounds.

“Our father was most affected by Thiongo’s death and up to date he still mourns him, especially when we have a family gathering and his absence is felt strongly,” he added.

The family was left to care for a 14-year-old child, who was later taken in by Thiongo’s estranged wife.

“Thiong’o and his wife had separated for five years before his death and so the boy was left under our care though the mother later took custody of the child,” said Mr Njoroge.

Another family that is still in agony four years on is that of James Mugweru, whose father, Wilson Mwangi, testified in the High Court.

Mr Mwangi narrated how a neighbour informed him of the shooting.

“He asked me to accompany him to the scene, where a guard informed us that my son had been involved in the shooting. It was the worst news a father could hear of his son,” said Mr Mwangi who, works as an electrical engineer in Kawangware.

Mr Mwangi is now pursuing the petition filed to get compensation for the families of the taxi drivers. If he doesn’t succeed, he said he would approach the office of public prosecutions to see if the matter could be taken up by the Supreme Court.

“I have since taken in my daughter-in-law and the three children who were left behind and do cater for their upkeep and other needs. I hope that some day we will be compensated,” he said.

During the court proceedings, Francis Siema, the deputy commanding officer at the Dagoretti District Headquarters Armoury, testified that he had issued the police officers with guns and ammunition.

When the officers returned the weapons, Mr Siema said, he received less ammunition with a report stating that some had been used on a gang.
Story by Evelyne Musambi