Two police officers who killed businesswoman at City Park in 2018 jailed for 7 years

Two police officers have been sentenced to seven years in prison over the killing of a businesswoman at City Park, Nairobi, in 2018.

The two cops, William Chirchir and Godfrey Kirui, had requested for a non-custodial sentence but the court ruled that this would not be appropriate since a life was lost.

The duo was on May 11, 2021 found guilty of manslaughter in the killing of businesswoman Janet Waiyaki by a Nairobi court.

Ms. Waiyaki was fatally shot by the two police officers on the morning of May 20, 2018, while in a car with her nephew, Benard Chege.

High Court Judge Stella Mutuku ruled that the officers’ use of force was not proportional to the threat.

She stated that no crime had been committed and that the deceased and the other occupant of the vehicle posed no danger to the officers.

The officers had not recognized the occupants at the time the car pulled away, Justice Mutuku said, and they did not fire in the air or deflate the tires because the deceased was shot in the passenger seat.

“They behaved rashly and opened fire with the intent to kill,” she said, adding that they used intimidation and broke the rule when they used weapons to stop the vehicle.

“All of the officers were armed, and they should have behaved cautiously. I believe there were other ways to intercept the car, and they also broke the law requiring them to protect life,” she stated.

The 41-year-old woman died as her 26-year-old counterpart was left in critical condition after police officers sprayed their car with bullets at City Park on that fateful day.

According to a police statement, a county security officer reported the suspicious vehicle parked within the park.

Police officers from Makadara who were on patrol in the area responded and found the car, a Toyota Fielder KBX 515 H, parked within the park in a forested area with all windows tinted and closed.

The officers reportedly knocked on the windows to no response before the car suddenly sped off towards the road, prompting two out of the over five police officers present to fire a combined 11 rounds of ammunition at the car.

The vehicle then stopped and inside were a male and a female namely Benard Chege, a Kikuyu male adult aged 26-years-old, and Janet Wangui Waiyaki, a Kikuyu female adult aged 41 years.

The two, who were both found half-naked and with gunshot wounds, were then rushed to Avenue hospital where Chege was admitted and Janet was pronounced dead.