Family cries foul over DPP's handling of attempted murder case

A family whose patriarch is charged with attempting to murder his wife and four children over a parcel of land is crying foul over how the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) is handling the case.

The family has accused the ODPP of failing to seek deportation of the main suspects from the US, releasing some of the suspects on bond under unclear circumstances, and withdrawing a case against one of the suspects.

In the case, the prime suspect, 72-year-old Francis Muya has been charged together with his friend Charles Muraya with five counts of conspiracy to murder.

Muya is accused that on diverse dates between March 1 and May 2, 2024, jointly with others not in court, he allegedly hired hit men at a cost of more than Sh3 million to murder his estranged wife Rose Njeri Muya.

The two face four other charges of conspiracy to murder Antony Mwaura, Martin Muya, Alex Muya, and Oprah Muya.

Through their law firm Mbugua Macharia and Associates, the family who is the complainant noted that the prosecution had already withdrawn the case against one of the main suspects.

They argued that this has weakened the case and the failure by the prosecution to share important information was an indicator of the wayward trajectory the case was taking.

“The accused persons were granted bond in unclear circumstances where neither our clients nor their counsel on record was present at the said bond hearing,” reads the letter.

One year after the case was reported, the family further noted that the prosecution had made little effort to have two of the main suspects deported from the US where they are currently living.

“The accused persons have instituted civil proceedings against the key witnesses in an attempt to intimidate them and tarnish their credibility as witnesses,” reads the letter.

In the case, Muya with the help of his daughter and son-in-law based in the US allegedly hired hit men to murder the five 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 2024 when Muya and his daughter allegedly met the two suspects 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.

“They wanted us to kidnap the mother, the three sons and a daughter and force them to transfer the plot to their name and later kill them,” reads the statement.

They settled for a fee of Sh3.1 million and proceeded to get the cash through the father and daughter totaling Sh1.7 million after the woman flew back from the US.

“On April 21, 2024 one of the suspects who lives in the US came back and the woman told us to eliminate him but we declined and instead met the victims and told them of the plan,” said Waithaka.

One of the victims, Martin Muya who is a businessman in Naivasha, narrated how he received a phone call from his brother from the US informing him about threats over the parcel of land.

“They warned him to keep off the land as they had orders to kill him and had been paid some money for the exercise,” he said.

Martin said that on May 1, they met the two ‘killers’ in Naivasha where they revealed the plan and showed them all their chats and Mpesa transactions.

“They showed us the directive to kill us and take over our assets and we reported to police later and the suspects were nabbed and later agreed to be State witnesses,” he said.

The family has written to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, Directorate of Criminal Investigation, and Inspector General of Police to investigate how the O DPP was handling the case.