Apostle Ngumbi Mutinda: I paid Sh600,000 blood cash to save blood brother

Popular televangelist Apostle Peter Ngumbi Mutinda has confessed that indeed he paid Sh600,000 to entice family and security to save his brother who had been linked to the May 15, 2017, murder of Francis Waweru in Murang'a County.

The televangelist who also is the founder of the Palace of Integrity Ministries in Nairobi's Chokaa estate, told this writer on phone that he was acting in good faith to save his brother who had been set up by two friends.

He clarified that he did not design to bribe to defeat justice, rather, he was acting on a recommendation by village elders and local administration in his native Ithanga Kakuzi Sub-County.

He said that he used the cash on the family of the widow Ms Teresiah Wanjiku who he gave 25 cows worth Sh300,000 and the rest on area administration, police and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“I used about Sh600,000…There is an officer who took Sh80,000, another chief received Sh50,000… There was the officer in DPP office in Murang’a who received the rest… In short, I was determined to stand with my brother,” Apostle Mutinda said.

After six(6) years of the case remaining silent and no suspect ever arrested, Murang’a County Police Commander Mr Mathiu Kainga had on May 12, 2024, ordered for its reopening, arrest and charging of all the suspects involved.

“Not only the suspects…The investigations that I want are the ones that will identify all those who conspired to subvert cause of justice by planning the matter be settled in a kangaroo court when the law is very clear that all murder cases must be resolved in the judiciary,” Mr Kainga said.

Apostle Mutinda says if he had known that he was sinking himself in a legal sludge in the name of standing with his blood brother, he would have kept off the fiasco.

“It was around 1am of May 15, 2017, when I received a call from my father in the village. I was in Nairobi. He wanted me to travel back home urgently since my brother who stayed with him and operated a motorcycle transport business had got into serious trouble of attacking a man,” he recalls.

He says that he advised his father to go and monitor what had happened and hive him feedback “since I was tired having had held several ministering sessions deep into the night”.

He says his father called him back and narrated that “two village youths had bought my brother alcohol and as payback gesture wanted him to ferry them to some place where a man was allegedly having an affair with one of the two’s mother”.

Apostle Mutinda says his brother took the two to a homestead near Muti Primary School where Waweru served as a watchman “and who had left his sentry duties to go and have a good time with the woman”.

Waweru was a member of the Akorino faith and was aged 71 years when he was attacked and murdered.

Apostle Mutinda says “my father called back later and informed me that my brother had refused to be part of the attack and had abandoned the motorcycle and ran away”.

“My father told me that the two youths had taken my brother’s motorcycle and had used it to run over the helpless Waweru severally on his thoroughly assaulted naked body which now lay on a footpath leading to the school he was supposed to be guarding,” he narrated.

Apostle Mutinda said he set the ball rolling to rescue his brother from the murder case noose that dangled around his neck ready to strangle.

Waweru was abandoned on the attack scene and was picked after five(5) hours and taken to Thika Level 5 Hospital where he died on May 18, 2017.

Apostle Mutinda’s brother and the two assailants had in the morning of May 15 taken themselves to nearby Ngelelya Police Post and reported that they had attacked a ‘love criminal’.

The situation report that the post wrote to Country Security Committee indicated that the duty officers declined to arrest them on grounds that there was no complaint filed by any victim, no degree of injuries report filed to help in determining grounds for holding them hence immature arrest.

The three were not satisfied and they took themselves to Kaguku Police Station to report themselves since they feared a murderous mob was stalking them.

Despite the station recording their complaint in the Occurrence Book (OB), they were not arrested since the incident needed verification and the wellbeing status of the attacked person ascertained.

It was when Waweru was reported dead that Kaguku Police Station commenced efforts to arrest the three(3) suspects who had since escaped from the village.

“That is where I came in and sought to intervene and negotiate for an amicable solution of the crisis. I told my parents to get me the details of the murdered Waweru so that I could reach out to his family and wipe its tears,” Apostle Mutinda told AVDelta News.

He said that he travelled back home on May 26, 2017, when Waweru was being buried and dispatched a team to commence negotiations on May 27, 2027.

“I also met area chief and also the Kaguku Police Station officers who were handling the case. They referred me to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). It was a cash spending spree…The family arbitration committee reported to me that it required Sh300,000…The other expenses cost a similar amount. In total I was left Sh600,000 poorer,” he said.

 He laments that “this issue is being reopened after all government officers in the case had assured me that I had resolved it”.

“What also pains me is that I am the one who footed the bill on behalf of my brother while the actual culprits never spent even a dime,” He said.

The distraught apostle lamented that he feels betrayed, lied to and manipulated.

 “Advise me now… What do I need to do now? Even when I paid and my brother went back home, the suspects returned home too and no one arrested them. I thought I was only saving my brother while police pursued the two suspects. What is that thing am I required to do now?” he posed.

Meanwhile, Mr Kainga had ordered that the murder file be reconstructed and forwarded again to the DPP for a fresh bid for justice for Waweru.

Murang’a Law Society of Kenya Chairman Mr Alex Ndegwa said the case is straightforward.

“Before the man of God commenced saving his brother, he should have taken note that there was a family with a widow and six(6) children mourning the murder of their patriarch,” Mr Ndegwa said.

Mr Ndegwa said the apostle also needed to factor in that the murdered man was also a man of God and whose white turban had been removed from his head by the attackers and hanged on a fence near his dying body.

“He should now leave the investigations to the police. We cannot preempt what will be their findings and recommendations but two things are certain here: The murder suspects must be arrested and charged in court and those who corrupted due process in 2017 be charged too,” Mr Ndegwa said.

He said the suspects once arrested can go and use the payment to the widowed family as their defense that the matter was settled amicably.

“But I don’t want to advise them that there is a long-standing common law principle, that the courts will not assist a party whose case is based upon an immoral or illegal act—no murder case should be resolved outside the court hence admitting the payment can be very dangerous,” he said.

Mr Ndegwa urged the apostle and his brother to go and read the context of the principle of “ex turpi causa non oritur actio” meaning that, “no legal reprieve action can arise from an illegal act”.

He said that the principle defines “illegality defence principle” where the law frowns upon attempts by defendants to raise an illegality so as to defeat a claim.

Mr Ndegwa said “it would be wisdom for all the parties to let the estate lie where it falls…This surely will be an interesting one and we as a bar will be following it closely as it unfolds and all must know defeating justice is very hard no matter the attempts”.