Acquitted murder suspect had no case to answer, court says

A murder suspect was acquitted and his case withdrawn rightfully, a deputy court registrar said yesterday.

Stella Kanyiri said the court found compelling reasons to acquit Kevin Odhiambo, who had been charged in January 2014 with the murder of a fellow inmate after the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) investigated the matter.

“Following investigations by Ipoa, which requested the Director of Public Prosecutions to terminate the case against Odhiambo and instead prefer charges against Chief Inspector Nahashon Mutua, the court found compelling reasons to allow the application,” she told a Milimani court.

On Monday, Constable Kennedy Simiyu testified that his boss was not at Ruaraka Police Station when the incident took place.

Simiyu was testifying as a defence witness for Mutua after the High Court found that he had a case to answer for torturing and killing a Mr Koome on the night of December 19, 2013.

The officer, however, shifted the blame to another suspect who was put in the same cell, claiming that Koome might have died as a result of injuries inflicted on him during a night-long assault.

“One of the suspects whispered to me that Koome was beaten up and his head banged on the wall by Odhiambo, who also forced him to drink human waste mixed with urine. I was at the station the entire night. Mutua did not beat the suspect as alleged,” said Simiyu.

The witness was, however, unable to explain why he did not record the incident in the occurrence book if indeed Koome was assaulted by Odhiambo.

Koome was arrested on December 19, 2013 at Nairobi’s Baba Dogo Estate over claims that he wanted to kill his child after a domestic quarrel with his wife and booked at the police station.

While in the cell, Mutua was said to have hit him using a blunt object and immersed his head in a drum full of water and broken his ribs. He was taken to Kenyatta National Hospital with serious injuries but died the following day.

Lady Justice Martha Mutuku found that Mutua had a case to answer and put him on his defence, ruling that the prosecution had established a strong case to prove he killed Koome.

But Simiyu testified that Mutua did not handle Koome when he was brought to the station and only helped to push him into the cell when he tried to resist being locked up.

“When Koome was brought to the station, Mutua told one of the officers to book him for child torture but the suspect started shouting and resisted being placed into the cells. He was not beaten up, we only carried him to the cells,” said Simiyu.

He added that there was a commotion inside the cell since it had many robbery suspects and that he overheard them hatching a plan to escape.