Court convicts Senator Kilonzo's ex-bodyguard in gun drama

Makueni court finds Administration Police officer Shadrack Kioko as found guilty of wounding Brian Mutua, an Assembly orderly. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEIDA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kioko was convicted of unlawfully wounding Mr Mutua.

  • Court set February 7 next year as the judgement date pending a probation report on his conduct and the feelings of his victim.

A Makueni court on Wednesday convicted a former bodyguard to Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior over a 2014 gun drama that left several people hurt at the county's Assembly premises.

Mr Shadrack Kioko, an Administration Police officer, had been charged alongside three other police officers attached to Makueni politicians.

The court acquitted Ndunda Muthoka, Mackline Francis Daido and Nicholas Lumbu Musyoka, the bodyguards of former Assembly Speaker Stephen Ngelu, former Assembly Majority Leader Francis Mutuku and former Kaiti MP Richard Makenga respectively.

CHAOS

Though the principal resident magistrate at Makueni Law Courts ruled that indeed all the bodyguards had opened fire on a crowd at the Assembly premises, he singled out Mr Kioko who he said had injured Mr Brian Mutua, an Assembly orderly, after he shot him at close range.

Mr Kioko was convicted of unlawfully wounding Mr Mutua.

The magistrate found the opening fire on the crowd by the other bodyguards justifiable since, he argued, the target crowd that had accompanied Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana to the Assembly premises was a threat to the assembled politicians.

He, however, could not determine who had actually injured each of the victims, among them Mr Douglas Mbilu, the current County Assembly Speaker, hence the acquittal.

Others who sustained gunshot wounds are Mr Yakob Abdirazak Bule, Mr Francis Mutisya, Mr Festus Nyamai, and Prof Kibwana’s bodyguard Mr William Kinoti.

The bodyguards had opened fire to dispel Prof Kibwana and his entourage when they attempted to access the Assembly premises the venue of the meeting by local politicians.  

The politicians, who had organised the meeting, did not want the governor to attend the meeting telling from an invite published on local dailies.

As the co-accused walked out of the dock in high spirits, a shaken Mr Kioko, through a lawyer, pleaded with the court to be merciful arguing that he had served a long clean term in the police service during his mitigation.

He specifically pleaded that the court should not condemn him to a custodial sentence arguing that he was nursing a sickly father.

Mr Mwaniki set February 7 next year as the judgement date pending a probation report on his conduct and the feelings of his victim.