Eric Momanyi Mosoti, Zacharia Kandie and Simon Gitonga were on Friday paraded before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo where they denied the charges/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 6 – Three police officers have been charged with unlawfully killing Engineer Fred Ogola Obado in 2012 at Kilimani area in Nairobi County.
Eric Momanyi Mosoti, Zacharia Kandie and Simon Gitonga were on Friday paraded before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo where they denied the charges.
The prosecution told the court that the officers on the night of April 6 and 7, 2012 along Jabavu road, Kilimani within Nairobi County killed Engineer Obado who was in their company.
The trial court ordered that each of the accused persons be released on a bond of Sh1 million with one surety of similar amount or a cash bail of Sh300,000 to secure their release pending hearing on July 5, 2016.
Senior Principal Magistrate Joyce Gandani who had conducted an inquest recommended that three police constables be arrested and arraigned in court for failing to protect the deceased who died in their hands.
The court heard that Engineer Obado had been arrested by the officers at a pub at Nyayo Highrise on April 6, 2012 and that he was hit and pushed out of the lorry by the officers while he and his colleagues were being taken to the Kilimani Police Station.
The trial magistrate who heard the inquest, said the corporal who was in charge of the operation Benson Wafula, be charged with the offense of negligence of duty.
The magistrate further said inspector Lydia Mambo be also charged with the offense of negligence of duty.
Corporal Wafula, according to the trial magistrate, refused to heed to the cry of the people in the lorry since he could have ordered the driver to stop so as to attend to the deceased who had fallen.
Inspector Mambo was supposed to have joined her colleagues but chose to go home while being aware that she was on duty.
The court concluded that the three officers; Momanyi, Kandie and Gitonga did not stop the lorry to attend to the deceased who had been pushed out of the vehicle.
The prosecution had called a total of 28 witnesses who included the colleagues of the diseased who were having a drink together at the pub.
The officers had come up with a theory that the deceased had died through a road accident, but their evidence was thrashed by a medical report and witnesses who were in the same police lorry.
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