File image of a court gravel.
The High Court in Voi has convicted a police officer over the 2019 fatal shooting of a man at a restaurant in Taveta Town.
In a statement on Tuesday, May 12, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) said the officer identified as Mark David Gitahi Marombe was found guilty of the murder of Esau Juma Mwanguku.
The court also cancelled the officer’s bond, ordering him to be detained at Manyani GK Prison pending sentencing, scheduled for June 2, 2026.
“The High Court in Voi has today convicted a police officer, CPL Mark David Gitahi Marombe, for the murder of Esau Juma Mwanguku in March 2019.
“Consequently, the Court cancelled the officer’s bond, detaining him at the Manyani GK Prison until his sentencing, which is slated for 2nd June, 2026,” read the statement in part.
The Court heard that the officer fatally shot Mwanguku at Rockland Restaurant in Taveta Town, where they had both been drinking.
The incident was investigated by the Authority, and upon completion of investigations, IPOA recommended that the officer be charged with murder.
This comes just days after two police officers were jailed after being found guilty of murdering a suspect in a police cell.
The accused, James Ogwagwa Nyakina and Jackson Kirui Kipngeno, committed the act on August 19, 2019.
According to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Nyakina was jailed for 30 years while Kipngeno received a 10-year jail term.
The Prosecution presented 14 witnesses to testify against the officers, successfully proving their involvement in the fatal assault.
“The prosecution established that the two officers, while on night patrol together with other police officers, arrested the deceased and took him to the said post, where the two assaulted him, and when he was taken to the hospital the following morning, he was pronounced dead,” ODPP stated.
