'I will never forgive my husband's killers,' Willie Kimani's wife Hannah speaks

This comes after Fredrick ole Leliman, a police officer believed to have been the mastermind of the brutal murder of Lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and driver Joseph Muiruri in 2016 was sentenced to death last week.

“I lost a husband the father of my children, he still has a chance to see his child who is in prison, an apology will not suffice, I cannot forgive them for what they did to my husband. The family of Kimani welcomes the verdict, I got to know that willy’s death was not in vain and the only thing that could comfort me was justice for Willie,” she said.

Six years since the human rights lawyer was gruesomely murdered, the family of Willie Kimani finally got the long-awaited justice. Leliman's former colleagues and co-accused Stephen Cheburet Morogo and Sylvia Wanjohi who were also found guilty of the murder were sentenced to 30 and 24 years respectively.

“Talking about Willie’s death is still a difficult thing for me, but when Justice Jessie Lesiit read the verdict I felt a relief and my heart was at peace,” she said.

According to Hannah, she almost gave up the pursuit of justice, especially when she was informed of intentions to change the judge.

“I felt like there was no need to continue fighting, but then I reminded myself that Willie was an innocent man doing his job at the time of his murder,” she said.

Speaking to Lulu Hassan on Citizen TV's new show Shajara ya Sema, Stella Muiruri, the sister of Joseph Muiruri notes that the years of waiting for justice have been full of pain.  According to her, she believes her brother and the rest will rest in peace now and their healing journey begins now after the verdict.

“The hearing was a very painful process and traumatic because you had to sit and listen to people recount the events of how my brother was killed. Seeing the perpetrators was another thing that took a toll on me, having them seated a few meters from you and listening to what they did in detail was painful,” she said.

“Forgiving them for taking our relatives from us is not easy at the moment, all we have of Joseph is memories, my brother did not have a family, the only memory we have is going to his grave to see where he was buried,” she added.

Lawyer Willie Kimani, his client Mwenda and the taxi driver were abducted after leaving Mavoko Law Courts in Machakos County on June 23, 2016. They were leaving a court session in Mavoko where Mwenda had filed a case against Fredrick Leliman.

The three were bundled into a vehicle and taken to Syokimau Police Post where they were locked up before they were later smuggled out and driven to a location where they were brutally murdered.

Their lifeless bodies were stashed in sacks and transported to a river in Ol Donyo Sabuk where they were dumped only to be recovered a week later on June 30 and July 1, 2016.