A family has filed a complaint at the Naivasha Law Courts over delays by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) in prosecuting a case involving a 72-year-old man accused of plotting to kill five of his family members.
The case, which has drawn public interest, has stalled for over two years since being filed, with the family citing alleged intimidation and the withdrawal of charges against key suspects as factors behind the delays.
The main suspect, Francis Muya, is facing five counts of conspiracy to murder. According to court documents, Muya is alleged to have conspired, between March 1 and May 2, 2024, with others not present in court, to hire hitmen at a cost exceeding Ksh. 3 million to murder his estranged wife, Rose Njeri Muya.
He is also charged with plotting to murder his three sons—Antony Mwaura, Martin Muya, and Alex Muya—as well as his daughter, Oprah Muya.
Appearing before Senior Resident Magistrate Wilson Rading, the family’s lawyer, Mbugua Macharia, urged the court to compel the prosecution to present the case file that has been under review for several months. He stated that his clients were still waiting for court directions to commence the case.
“The court should direct the prosecution to hasten the review of the file within the next two weeks for the sake of justice,” Macharia said, adding that the case had not progressed since the accused persons entered their pleas due to the failure to present the file.
The prosecution has since requested an additional 30 days for the ODPP to examine the file and determine the next steps. The magistrate is set to issue a ruling on the matter on August 11, 2025.
Court filings allege that Muya, in collaboration with his daughter and her fiancé—both based in the United States—sought to eliminate the five relatives in order to take over a valuable plot in Molo town.
A sworn statement by Paul Waithaka, a suspect turned State witness, claims the plan began on March 1, 2024, during a meeting in a Nakuru hotel. The plot reportedly involved kidnapping the family members to coerce them into transferring ownership of the land, after which they would be killed.
The agreed payment for the operation was Ksh. 1.7 million, allegedly funded by Muya and his daughter, who had flown in from the U.S.
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