Lead counsel Karim Khan took the witness through the death of freedom fighter Koitalel arap Samoei with a lot of fervour, discounting much of what he had stated and reminding him that the historical figure was beheaded by a merciless British soldier (Colonel Richard Meineatzhagen)/FILE
Lead counsel Karim Khan took the witness through the death of freedom fighter Koitalel arap Samoei with a lot of fervour, discounting much of what he had stated and reminding him that the historical figure was beheaded by a merciless British soldier (Colonel Richard Meineatzhagen).
A condescending Khan politely asked the witness if he had learnt about him in secondary school before slowly going for the kill.
Khan: And in fact so brutal a killing was it that his head was sent by this army officer to London so that it could be examined as to why he was such a good military strategist. Are you aware of that?
Witness: I am aware.
Khan: And he was attending what he had been told by the British was a peace pact meeting and under the cover of that meeting he was brought and executed. Are you aware?
Witness: I am aware.
Khan: And he had been told not to shake hands with the British because he would be identified as the leader. Are you aware of that?
Witness: I am aware.
However Khan’s line of questioning did not seem to shake the undeterred witness who chose to stick to his narrative maintaining that Samoei was the last King of the Kalenjin who was betrayed and killed by his own people.
But Khan chose not to poke any more holes into this particular topic choosing to instead go for a private session.
He had at the beginning psychoanalysed the huge amount of time the witness had spent prepping for his testimony asking him if he did this to tie up any loose ends of his account before taking the stand.
The witness however refuted this accusation maintaining that his testimony was as straight as could be.
According to Khan, the witness got time from January 6 to January 10 to ready himself for court in addition to getting access to his transcripts on January 13.
Khan: I am putting it to you that the reason why from the beginning and within 24 minutes of your interview on the 8th, the reason you expressed such interest in getting access to your transcript was because you were trying to remember a false story rather than recall truthfully an event that took place. Isn’t that the case?
Witness: It is not true.
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