Briton's alleged killers claim late George Saitoti forced murder trial

The late Alexander Monson's mother Hilary Monson (right) and her friend at a Mombasa High Court. [Kelvin Karani/Standard]

The lawyers of four police officers charged with the murder of British aristocrat Alexander Monsoon have claimed the deceased’s family exerted political influence to force their trial.

Naftali Chege, Charles Muganda, Ismael Baraka and John Pamba have been charged with the murder.

Alexander, 28, the son of Lord Nicholas Monson, was arrested for allegedly smoking cannabis in the Diani Beach Resort in May 2012, and died at a hospital after falling ill at Diani police station.

A postmortem showed he died from blunt force to the back of the head and scrotum.

The Monsoon family has maintained that their son was killed by police, while the four officers claimed he died of a drug overdose.

The four were charged with the murder on May 19, 2012, at Diani.

Yesterday, defence lawyer Daniel Wamotsa said the Monsoons approached the then Internal Security Minister George Saitoti (now deceased) to help them unravel the mysterious death of their son.

Institute investigations

Mr Wamotsa told Judge Eric Ogola that Saitoti ordered then Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere to commence investigations and he (Iteere) in turn ordered inspector Mohamed Amin to institute investigations.

“The family of Alexander went to Saitoti to seek assistance and was referred to Iteere, who ordered police officer Mohamed Amin to investigate the matter. There was an element of exerting political pressure on the case,” said Wamotsa.

Wamotsa poked holes in the investigations report produced by Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) officer in charge of investigations Jeremiah Arodi, which implicated the four officers.

He said Alexander had died out of drug overdose and that his family tampered with the body in an attempt to divert attention by claiming that he died by an injury inflicted on the head at the police station.

While testifying, Mr Arodi (pictured) said the four officers were culpable.