Kin claim slain taxi drivers had gunshot wounds

By Evelyn Kwamboka

Two prosecution witnesses told court taxi drivers allegedly killed by police had gunshot wounds.

The High Court in Nairobi yesterday heard the witnesses saw the wounds when they went to identify the bodies at the City Mortuary.

Mr Daniel Kimani Mungai said his brother-in-law, Joseph Maina, had a gunshot wound on the head and palm.

"I identified the body at City Mortuary but the postmortem was not done in my presence," he told Justice Fred Ochieng’.

Mungai was testifying in a case in which seven interdicted Administrative Police officers are charged with the murder of seven taxi drivers in Nairobi’s Kawangware estate.

bloodstained shirt

Mr Joseph Nderi Thairu told the court his brother George Ng’ang’a’s shirt had bloodstains around the stomach.

On Monday, a witness told the court one of the bodies collected from the scene was marked unknown in the mortuary.

Another witness Wilson Mwangi Mugweru said he found his son’s body at the mortuary next to six others collected from the scene.

"My son James Mwangi’s name was missing in the City Mortuary’s Occurrence Book. His body was marked as ‘unknown’ while the other six had their identity tags," he said.

Mugweru said they had camped outside the mortuary when a vehicle arrived 30 minutes later. But they were denied entry.

"We were then allowed to enter and I saw my son’s body. He had a gunshot wound on the neck, chest and elbow," he said.

The APs are charged that on March 11 along Naivasha Road in Kawangware, they jointly murdered seven people. Hearing continues.