Murder case: Pre-trial date for Malindi officers set

The High Court in Malindi has set the pre-trial proceedings for the murder of a 17-year-old boy to May 30, 2019.

Police officers Simeon Ayodo and Amos Kipsan’g are out on a Sh1 million bond each.

They appeared before Malindi judge Reuben Nyakundi on Thursday for the pretrial but it was postponed.

The two are accused of shooting and killing Katana Kazungu, a Standard Seven pupil on June 26, 2018 at Tsangatsini village in Kaloleni Subcounty.

They appeared in court on February 14, 2019 for plea taking and both denied committing the offence and secured bond.

The officers are attached at the Mariakani police station.

They are said to have shot Kazungu dead as he and colleagues pushed a truck that had stalled following a heavy downpour.

The vehicle was transporting ballast from a quarry when it got stuck in the mud.

The boy and his friends were helping to push it hoping to make money out of it.

The officers allegedly fired at the group, killing Kazungu at the scene.

The officers were later suspended amid pressure to bury Kazungu's body without a postmortem.

Pathologists conducted an autopsy on July 3 at Mombasa Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital.

The report showed the bullet that murdered Kazungu hit his stomach, pierced his back and passed through the heart before breaking a rib and exiting the body.

The matter attracted the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which probed the murder for seven months before forwarding the file to the office of the Director of Public Prosecution.

On January 12, 2019, the High Court in Malindi issued a warrant of arrest against the two officers.

They presented themselves before the court on February 12, 2019, where Judge Weldon Korir ordered a psychiatric test at Malindi District Hospital.