Police Constable Elijah Kimoi, who was on Friday arrested over the killing of Dr Victoria Nthunya Mutiso, had previously faced a murder charge alongside five other police officers over the shooting of a motorist in Ruaka.

Court records show that Kimoi’s service number in the old case was 91232 — the same number given by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in its report on his arrest over Dr Mutiso’s murder.

Kimoi was among six police officers charged over the death of Stephen Gichuhi Njoroge, who was shot on January 14, 2011, along Slaughter Earth Road in the Ruaka area of Nairobi.

The other five were Albert Njiru, Job James Weru, Daniel Pakar Matunge, Stephen Ariga and Kennedy Ominde. All the six officers were attached to Gigiri Police Post at the time.

Police constables Kennedy Ominde, Stephen Ariga, Daniel Matunge, Job Weru, Elijah Kimoi and Sergeant Albert Njiru in a Nairobi court yesterday during the ruling of case in which they were charged with the murder of Stephen Gichugi Njoroge at Ruaka area, Gigiri, Nairobi County on night of January 14, 2011. Four of them were acquitted.

Photo credit: File | Nation

In a ruling delivered on February 25, 2015, all six were later put on their defence after the trial judge found that each had a case to answer. The court record lists Kimoi as No. 91232 PC Elijah Kimoi among the six accused.

“The summary of the prosecution case which has emerged from the witnesses’ statements and testimonies is that Stephen Njoroge and four others were driving home on the night of 14th January 2011 when they encountered the accused persons. The accused persons signalled them to stop and opened fire, killing the deceased instantly,” the judge stated.

“The testimony of both the civilian witnesses and the expert witnesses have linked the fatal shooting of Stephen Njoroge to the accused persons who were on duty as police officers. I have carefully considered the evidence now on record. I find each accused person has a case to answer. Each one of them is put on his defence,” he added.

But only two of the six were eventually convicted. Stephen Ariga and Kennedy Ominde were found responsible for Njoroge’s death and convicted of the lesser offence of manslaughter. They were each sentenced to three years in prison.

The other four, including Kimoi, were acquitted.

The Court of Appeal later upheld the convictions of Ariga and Ominde, dismissing their appeals in a judgment delivered on September 21, 2018.

The earlier case began after a police patrol team went after a carjacked vehicle.

Stephen Ng’ang’a Wamboi, a taxi driver, had been carjacked around Pangani. His vehicle was driven towards Slaughter Earth Road, where police received information that its signals had been detected.

At about 11.30pm, Sergeant Albert Njiru, who was the patrol crew commander, mobilised his team and headed towards the area in a police Land Cruiser.

The officers encountered the carjackers after travelling about 500 metres along the road where, according to court documents, a gunfight followed.

The police rescued the taxi driver and recovered the carjacked vehicle before starting their journey back to the police post.

It was during the return journey that the officers encountered another vehicle.

Solomon Karomo Kiarie was driving a vehicle carrying Njoroge and other passengers from Ruaka.

The police ordered the vehicle to stop. Instead, the driver accelerated and passed the police Land Cruiser and the recovered carjacked vehicle.

The officers opened fire, killing Njoroge and injuring three other people.

Njoroge suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest. The bullet entered through the front and exited through the back.

The officers, however, told the court that they had seen someone fleeing from the vehicle and that the person had shot at them.

They said they returned fire at the vehicle to immobilise it.

The Court of Appeal records that the officers admitted firing at the vehicle from behind. They said they wanted to stop it and had stopped shooting once its tyres were hit.

As in the Dr Mutiso murder probe, the firearms used in the operation were not obtained from outside the police service; they were issued to the officers from the police armoury for patrol duties.

Court records show that Police Constable William Lekitau, who was in charge of the armoury at Gigiri Police Post, issued firearms and ammunition to the officers before they went on patrol.

The Court of Appeal, in upholding the conviction of the two, said the officers had intended to stop the vehicle but had used their guns in circumstances where passengers could easily be hit.

The court also upheld the finding that the shooting was unlawful but that there was no sufficient proof that the officers had intended to kill Njoroge. That was why the two were convicted of manslaughter rather than murder.

More than a decade later, Kimoi has again found himself at the centre of a homicide investigation.

According to the DCI report, Kimoi, service number 91232, was arrested on August 7, 2026, by officers from DCI headquarters.

The DCI says detectives recovered a Mini Jericho pistol, serial number KP47302127, loaded with 12 rounds of 9mm ammunition.

Two other police officers have also been identified as suspects in the investigation — Inspector Kenneth Sang and Police Constable Collins Bett Kiplagat.

The gun used in Dr Mutiso’s killing, the DCI said, was a police-issue Mini Jericho pistol attached to Nderi Police Post, which is under Kikuyu Police Station.

“Investigators visited Nderi Police Post. Upon inspection of the armoury steel box, a Mini Jericho pistol, serial number KP47302127, together with a magazine loaded with 12 rounds of 9mm ammunition, was recovered among other station firearms. Scrutiny of the arms movement register established that the firearm had been issued (to the inspector who is now a suspect),” the DCI said in a statement on Friday.

“The ballistic report has positively identified this Mini Jericho pistol as the murder weapon used in the fatal shooting of Dr Victoria Nthunya Mutiso. The spent cartridges recovered from the scene and the bullet head recovered from the body during post-mortem examination match the test-fired specimens from this firearm,” Mr Amin further said in the statement.

The DCI says the two officers escaped and detectives are trying to trace them.

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bmatheka@ke.nationmedia.com