British settler denies role in death of aristocrat's son

George Babour, owner of Ali Baba and Forty thieves club says that he banned the late Alexander Monson from his club on claims that he was a drug dealer.

MOMBASA, KENYA: A British settler in Kwale County has denied claims that he had a hand in the death of British aristocrat Alexander Monson at Diani Police station five years ago.

George Babour, who settled in Kwale in 1959, on Monday told Senior Principal Magistrate Richard Odenyo that he bore no animosity against the Mr Monson despite having banned him from his clubs on the Kenyan south coast.

Mr Babour told a judicial inquest into Alexander's death in police custody on May 19, 2012, that he had banned the Briton, who was heir to the Monson baronetcy, from Forty Thieves and Ali Baba clubs because he was rumoured to be engaged in narcotics.

Monson was pronounced dead while chained to a hospital bed in Diani where he had been rushed by police from Diani Police Station.

Police had detained him a few hours earlier, claiming they had found him smoking bhang.

However, a postmortem report established he died as a result of trauma to the back of the head and scrotum.

Police claimed to have found banned drugs and prescription medicine on his corpse.

His father Lord Nicholas Monson disputes the claims and insists police invented the claims to defame his son in death and hide the fact that he was murdered or died from some kind of medical negligence.