A police officer accused of the murder of a senior former Nakumatt auditor has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Ezekiel Momanyi Onsongo — who was found guilty of killing James Maina Karanja — was however released from jail since he has been in remand for the same period.

Karanja, a former auditor at Nakumatt Holdings along Mombasa Road in Nairobi, was shot dead in 2015.

Justice James Wakiaga acquitted Philip Manyura Maroko, a former accountant with Nakumatt, and boda boda rider Dennison Mose Maroko, who were charged alongside Onsongo.

The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the case against the two.

In his ruling, the judge said he agreed with submissions of lawyer John Ogada that the circumstantial evidence tendered by the prosecution against Maroko did not meet the legal threshold and that it was not proved there was any motive to kill Karanja.

The prosecution, led by senior assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Charles Okeyo, had alleged that Maroko and other staff paid Onsongo, a policeman based in Lavington, Nairobi, to kill the auditor. But the judge ruled that there was no evidence presented in court to prove that Maroko paid Onsongo to kill Karanja.

Ogada had, in his submissions, said his client was under no financial probe by the auditor at Nakumatt, as suggested by the prosecution.