Former police constable Titus Ngamau served with the Kenya Police in the Githurai area of Nairobi’s Eastlands.

He built a name for himself as an effective crimefighter, earning a local reputation for reducing robberies and muggings around the Githurai 45 stage.

His nickname ‘Katitu’ predates his policing career and came from his early days as a young guitarist. In a 2019 interview, Ngamau explained his skill with the guitar led to him being recruited into the Katitu Boys Band, which was very popular in the early 90s.

On April 14, 2013, Katitu reportedly encountered 27 year old local football player Kenneth Kimani Mwangi, whom he claimed was a wanted criminal.

He allegedly shot and killed Mwangi at the Githurai roundabout. Although no spent cartridges were recovered at the scene, ballistic evidence ultimately linked the fatal bullet to Katitu’s service weapon.

In 2018, Justice James Wakiaga found him guilty of misuse of a firearm resulting in death and sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment.

In October 2024, after spending three years in remand and serving six years at Kamiti Maximum Prison, Katitu was released on probation for the remaining three years of his sentence.

Since his release, the 51-year old has turned back to music to make a living, leading the ‘Kithangaini Lipua Lipua’ Band, named after his home village.

While some saw him as a community protector, others regard him as a cautionary tale of police excess and the perils of vigilante justice.

Fredrick Ole Leliman served as a Senior Sergeant at Mlolongo Police Station.

In April 2015, he shot bodaboda operator Josephat Mwenda at a roadblock, injuring his hand.

Mwenda would sue and Leliman would admit under oath as a prosecution witness that he “aimed at Mwenda while standing about 11 metres away,” but he denied any intent to kill him.

Then, on June 23 2016, human rights lawyer Willie Kimani was accompanying Mwenda (then pursuing his case against Leliman) to court, together with taxi driver Joseph Muiruri. All three vanished after their court session at Mavoko Law Courts.

Their bodies were discovered days later in the Ol-Donyo Sabuk River, bearing signs of torture, strangulation and gunshot wounds.

In July 2018, Leliman was charged for the killings alongside four co-accused; officers Stephen Cheburet, Sylvia Wanjiku, Leonard Mwangi (later acquitted) and police informer Peter Ngugi.

On February 3 2023, Justice Jessie Lesiit found Leliman guilty of three counts of murder, concluding that Leliman “personally attended to ensure that the deceased…were captured, detained…murdered, and their bodies dumped.”

He was sentenced to death (which under Kenyan law is commuted to life imprisonment) while Chemuret received 30 years, Wanjiku 24 years and Ngugi 20 years.

The convictions marked one of the rare instances in Kenya where officers were held criminally liable for extrajudicial killings.

Leliman’s trajectory, from shooting Mwenda on duty, through the triple-murder, to his death sentence (life imprisonment) has become symbolic of Kenya’s struggle to enforce the rule of law within its security services.

On the night of December 19 2013, Martin Koome Manyara was brought into custody at Ruaraka Police Station after a domestic dispute in Baba Dogo Estate.

The Officer Commanding Station (OCS), then-Chief Inspector Nahashon Mutua allegedly beat Koome with a metal bar, forced his head into a water drum, and then let him lie unattended until he died of his injuries the next day.

Post-mortem reports recorded multiple skull fractures, brain haemorrhage, eight broken ribs and extensive bleeding.

Mutua would try to pin the killing on a cellmate, Kelvin Odhiambo, but the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) would take up the case, leading an investigation that would exonerate Odhiambo and uncover Mutua’s cover-up scheme.

In February 2019, Justice Martha Mutuku of the High Court found Mutua guilty of murder and sentenced him to death (commuted to life imprisonment).

Mutua’s case is one of the rare instances where a senior officer (an OCS) was both convicted and handed a death sentence for torturing a detainee to death.

Reports from late 2024 indicate Mutua is serving his sentence at Kamiti Maximum Prison, where he has taken to teaching chemistry to fellow inmates.

At the time of his arrest and imprisonment, Chibungu Sanga was serving as a Police Constable attached to Mukurweini Police Station in Nyeri County.

In the early hours of March 8 2015, Sanga and three fellow officers went to arrest 33 year old Gregory King’ori Kanyi at his home in Kiriiti Village, Mukurweini. Kanyi was accused of assaulting an officer at a bar two weeks earlier.

The team broke down the door, and as Kanyi surrendered, Sanga opened fire.

Ballistics later confirmed one shot from Sanga’s service rifle killed Kanyi. No injuries were found on Sanga, and IPOA’s probe noted only the victim had wounds, establishing excessive force was used.

On November 30 2023, before Justice Martin Muya of the Nyeri High Court, Sanga was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Sanga’s case is among the relatively few in Kenya where a front-line officer has been criminally held to account for a death in custody without the cover of self-defence.

Sanga is currently serving his sentence at King’ong’o GK Prison in Nyeri County.