The High Court has acquitted matatu driver Francis Mbuga Weru of murdering patient David Maina Wangeci in a 2008 Nyeri Referral Hospital attack, ruling there was insufficient evidence to convict him after a decade-long trial.
Wangeci, who had been attacked at his Mweiga home on December 1, 2008, was transferred to Mt Kenya Hospital where he died three days later from injuries sustained during a second assault at Nyeri facility. Two nurses testified about a man entering their resting room and threatening them before leaving, but could not identify the attacker.
Weru, who claimed he was hospitalized on November 29, 2008, and discharged on December 1, 2008, presented medical records to support his alibi. Justice Jairus Ngaah noted the prosecution failed to link him to the crime, citing lack of identification parade and witnesses unable to recognize him.
The case, which began in 2009, faced repeated adjournments. Hearing resumed in May 2010 but stalled again, with the last session in 2017. The court highlighted inadequate investigation into the premeditated ICU attack, while Weru's defense emphasized other suspects in the case were later convicted or killed.
