On January 23rd, the Judiciary agreed to an application by DPP Nooordin Haji to have the Sh1.1 billion graft charges against former NHIF boss Geoffrey Mwangi dropped.
The DPP withdrew the graft case opened against Mr. Mwangi citing a lack of sufficient evidence to sustain the charges, which stemmed from a tender awarded to online pay company Webtribe Limited.
Days later, Lilian Waithera, an employee at the NHIF and the whistleblower in the graft case was shot by a sniper on Monday along Kaunda Street after sharing with her work colleagues that her life was in danger. This is according to a letter by Human Rights Watch to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki informing him of their intentions to have the DPP open a file in their quest to find justice for Ms. Waithera’s family.
“The pathologist formed the opinion that the cause of death was as a result of a gunshot wound. A bullet head was found lodged in the lungs of the deceased,” reads the police report under OB number 187/13/2023 at Central Police Station. It was also established that the bullet went through the left collar bone having been fired from an elevated angle”, reads the autopsy report.
Mary Lilian Waithera who was in the company of her friend, complained of an instant sharp pain while walking in Kaunda Street in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) on Monday, February 13.
Police rushed Waithera to Nairobi hospital where she was pronounced dead and her body taken to the Nairobi Hospital Mortuary.
Geoffrey Mwangi was in 2018 charged alongside former CEO Simon Kirgotty, NHIF audit committee members Mudzo Nzili, Yussuf Ibrahim, Elly Nyaim, Danson Muchemi, and his company Webtribe with 13 others.
But the DPP withdrew the charges against Muchemi, Webtribe, and Robert Muriithi and turned Muchemi into a state witness.
