Man convicted over role in kidnapping, killing of British tourist wins bid for freedom

Ali Kololo (centre), a former hotel worker at a lodge in Lamu County, being led to court in 2013. [File, Standard] The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has conceded to an appeal filed by Ali Batitu Kololo who has been behind bars for 11 years over the murder of a British tourist David Tebbutt and the kidnapping of his wife Jude in 2011. In a step that now brings Kololo's freedom closer, the DPP has filed a concession in court arguing that the magistrate's court erred by relying on hearsay. The filings by the DPP now lays bare a fatal injustice to an innocent man who is a poster boy of Kenya's invasion of Somalia following the abduction death and abduction of the tourists. Kololo has been on death row and branded a terrorist based on a lie brewed by the police, and which was too good for a judicial officer to believe in. His case is a classic example of how a failed criminal justice system can be a costly affair to the lives of hapless but harmless Kenyans. The prosecution says that there is no need for the High Court to call for more evidence to exonerate Kololo. It wants the court to allow the appeal and set the 42-year-old man free. "The respondent denied knowledge or possession of any additional and exculpatory material throughout the trial and is entitled to adduce evidence in rebuttal but which process is unnecessary given that that the appeal has been conceded without reaching the said evidence. Judith Tebbutt. The Briton was held hostage by suspected Al-Shabaab militants for more than six months. [File, Standard] Reasons whereof the appeal is allowed, the conviction is quashed, the sentences set aside and appellant set free," the concession notice filed late last month reads in part. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to suffer death for robbery with violence. The sentence was however commuted to life. Today, the 42-year-old father of two is cooling his heels a condemned man. However, details on the investigations on the case exposed Kenya's criminal justice system underbelly. The police, the prosecution and the judiciary nailed an innocent man. Somali pirates killed Tebbutt while touring Lamu in 2011, kidnapped his wife and held her for six months. The Metropolitan Police sent a team of officers to help the Kenyan counterparts. Investigations by the UK's Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on how a senior Metropolitan Police Officer Neil Hibberd conducted himself during investigations and hearing of the case reveal that he lied to the Kenyan Court and hid crucial forensic evidence that would have assisted the court to determine whether Kololo committed a crime. The UK police oversight body says that were it not that Hibberd is now a retired officer, he would face a charge of gross misconduct. He retired on December 15, 2017. "... No disciplinary proceedings can be brought against him. Mr Hibberd still been serving in the police, and there is sufficient evidence on which a reasonable and properly directed panel could, on the balance of probabilities, find misconduct. If in my opinion this threshold is met, I then determine the severity of the case to answer," IOPC said. In the notice, however, the DPP says that Hibberd who was prosecution witness 14 did not state in court the source of his information on how Kololo was arrested and taken to the General Service Unit (GSU). Ali Babito Kololo (left) consults his lawyer Alfred Boniface Olaba at the dock in a court in Malindi in 2015. [Paul Gitau, Standard] "On cross-examination, he confirms he was 'told' without disclosing who told him. It was purely hearsay evidence," the notice continues. In an interview with The Standard, Mrs Tebbutt who was freed after her son negotiated for a ransom also believes that Kololo was the wrong person to pay for the sins of her kidnappers and her husband's killers. She stated that she is unable to move on, as an innocent man has been languishing behind bars for a decade now. "The one thing that is still really unsettling and unsatisfying is that Mr Kololo has been in prison for 10 years and I believe that he is innocent," she laments. "He looked like a rabbit in headlights... This man looked frightened. And he had every right to be frightened, because he's been accused of something that he didn't do... He was not there on the night, he was not part of the group that held me, I've never seen him before and from what I understand, he is innocent." Court of Appeal record exclusively in our possession reveals that Mrs Tebbutt was not able to identify Kololo as one of the assailants during the trial. Hibberd led a Scotland Yard counter-terrorism team that was sent to Kenya to hunt for killers and murderers. His team was to work alongside Kenyan police. Subsequently, he was a star witness, leading to the conviction of Mr Kololo.

Man convicted over role in kidnapping, killing of British tourist wins bid for freedom

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