Katitu: Githurai killer cop set free after serving six years

Titus Ngamau alias Katitu, the famous killer cop of Githurai, is a free man.

After approximately six years, prison authorities yesterday handed Katitu to his probation officer to serve the remaining three years of his jail term outside the Kamiti Maximum Prison walls.

The Saturday Standard has learnt that Katitu has partly paid the price of killing one Kenneth Kimani in cold blood on March 14, 2013, a man he claimed was a wanted criminal.

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“He was due for a normal release today [Friday],” said George Diang’a, the officer in charge at Kamiti, adding that Katitu was handed over to the probation officer at the Milimani Law Courts.

After he was sentenced, Katitu moved to the Court of Appeal, which on April 28, 2020, affirmed the sentence handed by the lower court.

Katitu is the posterboy of an infamous phenomenon addressed by Appeals Court judges William Ouko (now at the Supreme Court), Fatuma Sichale, and Sankale Ole Kantai and which is dogging the police across the world- the blue code of silence.

The code is an unwritten rule that police officers never provide incriminating information of their colleagues and whenever one of them commits a crime, they close ranks in silence to cover up evidence.

The judges observed that when Kimani was killed at the Githurai stage, there was an active attempt by the police to sweep the cause of his death under the carpet and, in death, deny him and his family justice.

Their hero

“This background is important in our consideration of this appeal because of the police in Kenya, as we shall demonstrate in this case as in others before it, has, in certain circumstances engaged in the practice of covering up for each other,” the judges observed.

At the same time, they found that the evidence was deliberately manipulated and improperly handled, while the scene of the crime was not secured, which allowed contamination.

Katitu, however, was loved by most Githurai residents. He was their hero for eliminating crime.

Whenever he rested his gun, the man, who was also a benga musician, struck guitar strings to win the hearts of many music lovers.

He was the lead of the Kithangaini Lipua Lipua band.

Katitu was a master of the lead guitar and he would play for hours without a break.

During his days touring clubs in Eastlands, which are famous for hosting Kamba music acts, he never shied from reminding the revellers who he was.

Katitu honed his guitar skills at the Kenya Police Band.

After his arrest in 2013, Githurai residents held a week-long protest calling for his release and even held a fundraiser to bail him out.

They even held concerts to fundraise, and when they failed to hit the target, former Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko personally paid the bond.

Kimani was a 27-year-old soccer player with the Mathare Football Club

He was killed at the Githurai roundabout and the court found the bullet lodged in his body was fired from a gun held by Katitu.

A total of five bullets were fired at the scene, and not a single spent cartridge was recovered from the scene, except one that was lodged in the Kimani’s body and whose origin the prosecution treated as a mystery.

The cartridge could not match a pistol that Katitu claimed to have been using that day while on patrol.

Brother killed

Oscar Muchoki Mwangi, who was Kimani’s brother, was also killed in cold blood by police almost a year later.

Their mother Purity Wanjiku Mwangi left the country for Norway after she was allegedly threatened.

In the case, the State called 18 witnesses, among them were police officers and none of whom gave incriminating evidence.

The Appeals Court observed that the officers were determined to maintain the blue code of silence in a bid to save Katitu from going to prison. 

Curiously, two police officers identified as George Amori and Amemba, who were with Katitu on the day Kimani was shot, were never listed as witnesses by investigators.

While denying killing the victim, Katitu told the court that he only responded to an alarm after a group of youths stole a mobile phone.

He claimed that he shot thrice in the air while pursuing Kimani and when he got to him, he found he had been shot and the mobile phone that he had allegedly stolen was next to his body.

He claimed that Amori and Amemba also discharged one bullet each from their guns, however, a firearm examiner stated that none of the cartridges were fired from the three guns.

Katitu also claimed that he was being framed by human rights groups for a crime he did not commit.

An officer from the Independent Police Oversight Authority (Ipoa) in their testimony said that the firearms movement register was manipulated.

The killer cop was born in 1973 in Kathingani, Machakos County.

He schooled at Kathingani Primary School and Masii Boys High where he wrote his final exams in 1997.