Police officers accused of rape and murder acquitted

Two police officers accused of raping and killing a woman have been acquitted.

Nancy Akinyi died at the Mtwapa Police Station cells on June 28, 2004, and three men were charged with the murder.

They were constables George Okello and Wilson Fondo, and Erick Onyango, a bouncer.

Yesterday, 12 years after Akinyi's death, the High Court ruled that although she mysteriously died at the hands of law enforcement officers, constables Okello and Fondo were not responsible for her death.

"I do find that the (two officers) are not guilty of the offence of murder as charged and are hereby acquitted under Section 306 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Act, Cap 75 Laws of Kenya. The (officers) shall be set (free) unless otherwise lawfully held," High Court judge Said Chitembwe ruled.

Onyango was the first to go in the dock over the murder, but the court cleared him. This raised a storm in Parliament on May 4, 2011 as MPs demanded that Akinyi's killers be convicted.

The then Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode was hard pressed to explain why seven years after Akinyi's death no one had been punished.

The then National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende was shocked when Ojode said he would order investigations into the murder.

Mr Marende wondered how seven years down the line the police were still investigating an incident that took place under their watch.

Immediately after the National Assembly session, the two police officers were arrested and charged with murder.

The investigator in the case told the court that when the two officers brought Akinyi out of the cells to the crimes office for interrogation, Mr Okello was heard saying that she had given them a headache.

The court heard that she went to the station to complain that the bouncer had snatched her purse and mobile phone only to be detained.

Onyango on the other hand told the police that Akinyi tore his shirt in a scuffle over Sh114 beer bill.