Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri.
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MP Kimani Ngunjiri: I had nothing to do with Joannah Stutchbury murder
Bahati MP Onesmus Kimani Ngunjiri has vowed to sue Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko for linking him to the gruesome killing of renowned conservationist Joannah Stutchbury in July.
The legislator was named as a person of interest in investigations, but claims he was in the United States when the murder was committed.
“I was not in any way involved in the murder of the environmentalist as claimed. I have never plotted harm on anyone. It was not fair for Tobiko to list me among the suspects without concrete evidence simply because we disagree politically,” he told the Nation on Wednesday.
“At the time the murder was committed, l was in the US, where l had stayed for two months. How was I involved in a murder while I was so many miles away? How could I have planned it without leaving a trail of evidence?” posed the MP.
Stutchbury was ambushed by armed gunmen and shot dead on July 16 outside her residence in Kiambu.
On Sunday, Mr Ngunjiri told youth groups at his home in Maili Kumi that he had instructed his lawyers to file a lawsuit against Mr Tobiko.
He, however, admits to owning a piece of land at the controversial area. “There are so many people and companies that own land in the area around the forest. Why did Tobiko single me out?” he posed.
“I was shocked by his claims that l am a person of interest in the murder. The CS knows where he should take the claims. Let him take any evidence he has to the investigative agencies,” the MP told the Nation.
Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Forestry Keriako Tobiko.
On October 26, Mr Tobiko told the Senate Security Committee that Stutchbury was murdered due to her environmental conservation efforts, especially stopping the rehabilitation of a road in Kiambu Forest.
He said a private developer wanted to rehabilitate a road through the natural resource to his private land but Stutchbury successfully blocked him.
The CS referred to a case before the Kiambu court that linked a company in which Mr Ngunjiri is the director, adding that Stutchbury was killed because of her fight to save the forest.
She was shot several times by an assassin who left her body in the vehicle with the engine still running and everything intact.
Logs and branches were placed on the road near Mushroom Gardens, where she lived. She had reportedly been threatened by a developer at gunpoint earlier in the year.
Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor said Stutchbury was shot three times in the head and three times in the upper limbs and died from excessive bleeding.
She was allegedly shot at close range as there was gun powder deposits on her skin.