A bouncer alleged to have alerted the police that a British aristocrat was smoking bhang outside a club fled to Tanzania after the latter's death, an investigator has told a murder trial in Mombasa.
The investigator claims the bouncer, who worked at Tanduri Club, has never been traced and hence never recorded a statement.
Three policemen and a retired officer who handled Alexander Monson after his arrest outside the club in 2012 are on trial for murder.
Monson died while in police custody.
Initially, the police claimed Monson died from a drug overdose but after protests from his family, a postmortem examination was conducted that showed he died from blunt force inflicted on his scrotum and back of the head.
A subsequent judicial inquest recommended the indictment of the four officers for murder.
According to State accounts in 2012, the purported bouncer alerted the police on patrol that Monson was smoking marijuana outside the club.
Yesterday, Independent Policing Oversight Authority investigator Jeremiah Arodi told Justice Erick Ogola that the bouncer in question had been contacted several times to record a statement but he has never turned up.
Arodi told the judge that he decided to charge the four police officers with the murder of Monson because of their negligence which resulted in the Briton's death.
On trial
The accused are Charles Munyiri, Naftali Chege, Ismael Baraka and John Pamba.
They are charged with murdering Monson on May 19, 2012, at Diani Police Station, jointly with others not before the court.
They have denied the charges.
The investigator, who was being cross-examined by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alex Muteti, denied claims that former Internal Security Minister George Saitoti (now deceased), pushed for the arrest and trial of the police officers.
He told the court that the injuries, which resulted in the death of the Briton, were inflicted on him between 3am and 6am on May 19, 2012.
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Arodi dismissed claims that these injuries could have been sustained at Tanduri Club before Monson was arrested on May 19, 2012.
Muteti said the State had closed its submissions. Lawyer Jared Magolo said the defence will give oral submissions.
The judge will on March 17, 2020, rule whether the accused persons have a case to answer.
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