Justice Roselyn Korir, who was hearing Thou’s case, said the pesticide kills in five to 10 minutes once ingested. After consuming the beer, the former MP started sweating profusely, bleeding through the pores, vomiting, before collapsing and dying minutes later....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
Ruth Watahi Irungu, Esther Ndinda Mulinge, Samuel Kuria Ngugi, Andrew Karanja Wainana, Christopher Lumbazio Andika alias Lumba and Paul Wainaina Boiyo in a Milimani courts on May 3, 2024.
In the evening of November 17, 2013, former Juja MP George Thuo drove to Porkies club in Thika. He ordered three bottles of Tusker and one was opened and laced with a pesticide (lambda-cyhalothrin).
Unsuspecting that it was poisoned, Thuo who was in the company of friends, downed his beer.
Lambda-cyhalothrin is a fast-acting poison and it gives rapid knockdown and lasting residual activity.
Justice Roselyn Korir, who was hearing Thou’s case, said the pesticide kills in five to 10 minutes once ingested.
After consuming the beer, the former MP started sweating profusely, bleeding through the pores, vomiting, before collapsing and dying minutes later.
Investigations into the death for the former lawmaker started and in November 2014, six people were charged in the High Court with Thuo’s murder.
The six were club owner Paul Wainaina Boiyo, two disc jockeys Andrew Karanja Wainaina and Samuel Kuria Ngugi, waitress Esther Ndinda Mulinge, club patron Ruth Watahi Irungu and the former MP’s aide Christopher Lumbazio Andika.
They have since been convicted. Judge Korir on April 19 this year said the prosecution had proved its case. The case has lasted a decade.
The six are now awaiting their mitigation and sentencing.
Through the lengthy trial, Chief Inspector Maxwell Otieno, the lead investigator in the case, testified that the Tusker bottle and the clothes Thuo was wearing that evening were tested and they had traces of the pesticide.
He told Justice Korir the bottle and the clothes were taken to the Government Chemist and test results confirmed the suspicion the politician was poisoned.
Postmortem results showed Thuo suffered excessive bleeding that led to his death.
But the defence put a spirited fight, with lawyer John Khaminwa, for the pub owner, insisting that Thuo had been on a drinking spree on that day and he had earlier visited other pubs.
The lawyer also claimed the politician had a history of heart problems and was receiving treatment from time to time, hence his death could not be pinned on a particular cause.
He said the specimen that included a sample from Thuo’s body, clothes and bottle had been flown to South Africa for further forensic tests, but the results were not adduced in court.
But the judge found the evidence on record was credible that the poison was traced in his liver, kidney and the shirt he was wearing.
“I find the forensic evidence clearly shows Thuo consumed a laced drink at Porkies club,” judge Korir said.
The judge said the prosecution evidence did not show any of the accused had the poison but that alone did not exonerate them.
“Poison is a chemical weapon. I reject the submission that they would be acquitted if they are not found in possession of the poison,” she said.
A few years before his death, Thuo was a highflying politician and a businessman whose interest were said to extend to City Hoppa.
He won Juja parliamentary seat in 2007 against William Kabogo on the then President Mwai Kibaki-led PNU ticket. He was shortly appointed the Government Chief Whip.
But his political star lost its shine when a court in 2010 annulled his Juja win on a petition filed by Kabogo, going down in history as the first Government Chief Whip to lose his parliamentary seat..CONTINUE READING>>
