Justice Weldon Kirui's bodyguard charged over loss of firearm

By Joel Ngugi

Nairobi, KENYA: Justice Weldon Kirui’s body guard appeared before a Kibera court facing charges of negligently failing to take care of a firearm and ammunition in his possession.

Sergeant Langat Kipkoech was accused that on 15th February 2014 along Mbagathi way in Nairobi failed to take reasonable precaution to ensure that a ceska serial number F8484 is not stolen or lost and in the process did lose the said firearm.

Kipkoech who is an administration police officer who resides at Uhuru camp in Nairobi had been entrusted with the firearm due to the nature of his duties as he often escorted the high court judge.

The sergeant faced a second account where he is accused of negligently failing to take care of 12 rounds of 9mm caliber ammunition which he had in his possession.

The officer is further facing two more counts where he is accused that on the same day he failed to report the loss of a firearm ceska Serial number F8484 and also failing to report loss of 12 rounds of 9mm caliber ammunition to the relevant authorities.

It is claimed that on the material day the officer was on his way home after duty when he came across unknown people who attacked him and in the process he lost both the firearm and rounds of ammunition.

The prosecution applied to have the accused detained in Kileleshwa police station until 21st February 2014 to enable the police complete the investigations but the court declined their request.

He was released on a cash bail of Sh 20,000 after he pleaded not guilty to the charges before resident magistrate Tom Orlando. The matter will be mentioned on 24th February 2014 when the court is expected to fix the hearing date.

 Kipkoech was set free after he raised the required cash bail.