Court Releases Suspects in Kenyan-German’s Murder Case

Six years after the brutal murder of Kenyan-German lady, a court in Malindi has released the three suspects, two Kenyans and a Dutch national, for lack of evidence to prosecute the trio.

Delivering the judgment at the Malindi high court, Justice Weldon Korir said the prosecution failed to prove that indeed the three accused persons, murdered Lilian Mwikali Andree as the prosecution based their case on circumstantial evidence.

The acquitted are Emericus Hendricus Van Werf, a Dutch national and his wife Vera Juliet Anyango who claimed to be proprietors of Sailfish Club in Malindi and Said Abdalla Kadenge their manager. The three were charged with the murder of Lilian Mwikali on November 14th 2012.

The judge said apart from establishing the existence of a land dispute the prosecution failed to show that any of the accused had the intention to kill the deceased as a result of the dispute.

Korir said in order to obtain a conviction in a case of murder the prosecution must establish malice afterthought as defined in section 206 of the penal code.

The judge also said in his judgment that the prosecution’s case had missing links from the night of the murder as the night watchman on duty on November 11, 2012, Alex Mzungu the last day Mwikali was seen alive was never arrested despite him being a key suspect in the case.

Lilian Mwikali Andree, also known back then by the online community as Kasuku, had been embroiled in a property tussle before her death and
was murdered while on vacation in Kenya trying to recover her property that was fraudulently sold off to foreigners.

Shortly before her return back to Kenya in October 2012, Mwikali contributed on a thread titled “How Malindi was stolen from Kenyans by criminals”, on the Jukwaa Forum before sharing details about her struggle in a long Facebook post.

“The title is really correct. Malindi is being stollen every day by foreigners. Right now am capturing my property from some thieves. Oh, the other day Railas property was stollen at Kilifi! And by the way it isnt only foreigners who are stealing properties here. Kenyans have grabbed too. Berluskoni (sp) knows the safest place to hide in the world is Malindi. Tomorrow am going to the beach Party and hope to see that kaman (sp) face to face to see what makes a man bahve (sp) as if he could just walk to God and tell him to vacate his sit.” – Mwikali wrote in the Jukwaa forum under her pseudonym, Kasuku shortly before her death.

According to her post, Mwikali had inherited the Sailfish Club in 1995 when her German husband passed on. In 1997 the property was fraudulently sold by her stepsons to two Dutch nationals while she was sick in Europe. When she tried to reclaim the property in 2007 through her lawyer, it was claimed that the file had disappeared and that the court order on the property had been filed in Kisumu.

During her stay in Germany, she left the property under the management of some relatives. Some quarters claim, that these relatives are the ones that faked the documents and sold off the property to Van Werf.

Her final attempt to reclaim the property in 2012, unfortunately ended fatally. She disappeared on Sunday 11th November, only for her decomposing body to be found in a septic tank at the Sailfish Club with her head wrapped in a polythene bag.

Now the court has dismissed the case and acquitted the suspects for lack of substantial evidence. Will we ever find out who killed Lilian Mwikali Andree?

Her family on receiving the news declared it an abscording of justice and hope the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) shall help to get to the bottom of this case and hopefully get justice for Mwikali.