High Court convicts 4 over murder of ex-Kabete MP George Muchai, 3 aides

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 29 — The High Court has convicted four men over the 2015 murder of former Kabete MP George Muchai and his three aides, bringing to a close the murder trial that ran alongside a separate robbery case in which the same four were sentenced to death in April.

The four — Erick Munyera, Raphael Kimani, Mustafa Kimani and Stephen Asitiva — were found guilty of the four murder counts arising from the February 2015 killings.

Muchai, who was the sitting Kabete MP, was killed alongside his two police bodyguards, Constable Samuel Kimathi and Constable Samuel Lekakeny, and his driver, Stephen Ituu Wambugu, along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi.

The High Court murder case is separate from the robbery-with-violence proceedings concluded before Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina earlier this year.

In April, Onyina sentenced the four to death after convicting them of robbery with violence and other related offences linked to a series of robberies committed on the nights of February 6 and 7, 2015. Two other accused persons in that case received 10-year prison terms.

The magistrate’s court proceedings involved robberies in which victims lost property valued at about Sh1.1 million, including vehicles, mobile phones, a laptop, a gas cylinder and cash.

The firearms and ammunition produced as exhibits in that case were ordered forfeited to the State, but the order was to take effect after the conclusion of the separate High Court murder trial.

High Court murder trial

The murder proceedings involved seven accused persons when the case began.

In September 2025, Justice Kanyi Kimondo ruled that the prosecution had established a case requiring four of the accused — Munyera, Kimani, Mustafa Kimani and Asitiva — to be placed on their defence. Three others were released from the murder proceedings after the court found that the evidence against them was insufficient to require them to answer the charges.

The four were facing separate counts over the deaths of Muchai, Kimathi, Lekakeny and Wambugu.

The prosecution had called 37 witnesses during the High Court proceedings.

The defence challenged the prosecution’s evidence and denied the allegations against the accused.

In its latest judgment, the High Court found that the prosecution had proved the murder charges to the required standard, resulting in the convictions of the four accused.