How pesticides ended Thuo’s political career

On the evening of November 17, 2013, former Juja MP George Thuo drove to the Porkies club in Thika.

He ordered three bottles of Tusker and one was opened and laced with a pesticide (lambda-cyhalothrin).

Unsuspecting that it had been poisoned, Thuo, who was in the company of friends, drank his beer.

Lambda-cyhalothrin is a fast-acting poison and ensures rapid degradation and long-lasting residual activity.

Judge Roselyn Korir, who listened You are the case, said the pesticide kills within five to ten minutes once ingested.

After consuming the beer, the former MP began sweating profusely, bleeding through the pores and vomiting, before collapsing and dying minutes later.

The investigation into the former lawmaker’s death began and in November 2014, six people were charged by the Supreme Court for Thuo’s murder.

The six were club owner Paul Wainaina Boiyo, two disc jockeys Andrew Karanja Wainaina and Samuel Kuria Ngugi, waitress Esther Ndinda Mulinge, club patron Ruth Watahi Irungu and former MP Christopher Lumbazio Andika’s aide.

They have since been convicted. Judge Korir said on April 19 this year that the prosecution had proven its case. The case lasted ten years.

The six now await their mitigation and sentencing.

During the lengthy trial, Chief Inspector Maxwell Otieno, the lead investigator in the case, testified that the Tusker bottle and clothing Thuo wore that night had been tested and found traces of the pesticide were present.

He told Judge Korir that the bottle and clothes were taken to the government pharmacy and the test results confirmed the suspicion that the politician had been poisoned.

Post-mortem results showed that Thuo bled excessively, which led to his death.

But the defense put up a spirited battle, with lawyer John Khaminwa, for the pub owner, insisting Thuo had been drinking that day and had previously visited other pubs.

The lawyer also claimed that the politician had a history of heart problems and was receiving intermittent treatment, therefore his death could not be attributed to any particular cause.

He said the specimen, which contained a sample of Thuo’s body, clothing and bottle, had been flown to South Africa for further forensic testing but the results had not been submitted to court.

But the judge found that the evidence was credible and that the poison was found in his liver, kidney and the shirt he was wearing.

“I find that the forensic evidence clearly shows that Thuo had a drink at the Porkies club,” Judge Korir said.

The judge said the prosecution’s evidence did not show that any of the suspects had the poison, but that alone would not have exonerated them.

“Poison is a chemical weapon. I reject the claim that they would be acquitted if they were not found in possession of the poison,” she said.

A few years before his death, Thuo was a high-flying politician and businessman whose interests would extend to City Hoppa.

He won the Juja parliamentary seat in 2007 against William Kabogo on the then President Mwai Kibaki-led PNU ticket. He was appointed Chief Government Whip shortly afterwards.

But his political star lost its luster when a court annulled his Juja victory in 2010 based on a petition filed by Kabogo, who went down in history as the first government Whip to lose his parliamentary seat.