Man linked to murder of former MP Nderitu Githua set free

A man accused of killing former Nyeri MP John Nderitu Githua has been acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Herman Munene was released after High Court judge Jairus Ngaah ruled that the prosecution only provided circumstantial evidence.

The suspect was accused of killing Mr Githua on December 5, 2009 in Gathugu.

“It is a trite that an accused be convicted only on the circumstantial evidence that he lived with the deceased and that few days before his death, they had differed over a fence that the accused had erected on the deceased’s farm,” he said.

Mr Githua was on December 16, 2009 found dead on a sofa covered with a blanket in his three-roomed house.

The court heard that his body was found by a neighbour James Murefu who was herding goats nearby when they strayed to Mr Githua’s compound.

Mr Murefu said that as he drove them out, he peed through the window and saw the deceased covered in a blanket, at the floor, was a bottle of alcohol and a cup.

While testifying, James Mbogo Nderitu, a relative of the suspect told the court that two weeks before the death the two got into a disagreement after Mr Munene started paddocking Mr Githua’s land while he was away in Subukia.

In his ruling, the judge said that according to the 21 prosecution witnesses presented in court, none of them saw the accused murder the deceased.

He said that a pathologist’s report presented in court showed that the body injuries and the cause of death was triggered by another person.

But the police did not make any efforts to investigate the murder case, the judge said.

“The suspect cannot be tied to Mr Githua’s murder only because he lived in the same compound or house with him whereas beside him, the deceased’s sister testimony was required,” he said.

Nderitu Githua served as an MP under Independence party Kanu in 1982.