Family of 72-year-old man charged with conspiracy to murder protests case delay

A family whose 72-year-old man who is accused of conspiring to murder five of his kin has lodged a complaint at the Naivasha Law Courts over the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP)’s pace in prosecuting the case.

The family says two years after the matter was registered in the courts, the case had not kicked off amid allegations of intimidation and withdrawal of charges against some of the main suspects.

This came as the prosecution sought an extra 30 days to allow the ODPP to peruse the file further and issue the way forward.

In the case, Francis Muya, the main suspect, faces five counts of conspiracy to murder, while the daughter and her fiancé, who are based in the United States, are wanted for similar charges.

Muya is charged that on diverse dates between March 1 and May 2, 2024, jointly with others not in court, he hired killers at a cost of over Ksh.3 million to murder his estranged wife Rose Njeri Muya.

He also faces four other charges of conspiracy to murder Antony Mwaura, Martin Muya, Alex Muya, and Oprah Muya, the farmers' three sons and a daughter, respectively.

Through their lawyer, Mbugua Macharia, the family urged the court to rein in the prosecution for failure to produce the case file that has been under review for months.

Macharia told the court that his clients awaited court directions to kickstart the murder case that has attracted public interest.

Appearing before Senior Resident Magistrate Wilson Rading, Macharia said the court should direct the prosecution to hasten review of the file in the next two weeks for the sake of justice.

He said that since the accused persons took the plea, the case has never continued due to a failure by the prosecution to present the reviewed file. He asked the court to issue directions.

The magistrate will make a ruling on the issue on August 11, 2025.

In the case, the granny, with the help of his daughter and son-in-law, is accused of hiring the killers to assist him get rid of the family members so that they could take over the prime plot in Molo town.

According to documents filed in court, the plan started on March 1, 2024, when the father and his daughter allegedly met the two killers in a hotel in Nakuru.

In a sworn statement by one of the suspects, Paul Waithaka, who has since been turned into a State witness, the father and daughter wanted the five eliminated for refusing to vacate the prime land.

The statement read that they wanted them to kidnap the mother, the three sons, and a daughter, and force them to transfer the plot to their name and later kill them.

They settled to get the cash through the father and daughter totalling Ksh.h1.7 million, as the woman who lives in the U.S. flew back.