The case against the killing of Baby Samantha Pendo may not hold after all.
For a case that has taken more than a year to prosecute, experts argue that the judge has three options.
Lack of sufficient evidence
Top of the probable outcomes of the case of baby Pendo inquest is the lack of sufficient evidence.
The six-month-old baby Samantha Pendo lost her life allegedly in the hands of police in Nyalenda during the post 2017 poll chaos.
The proponents of the case will have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that baby Pendo’s death was in deed orchestrated by police brutality.
If it is, sufficient evidence must be adduced to link the suspected police officer to the baby’s death.
Several witness accounts
The inquest that took over 10 months before Kisumu Senior Resident Magistrate Beryl Omollo has seen over 20 witnesses take to the witness stand.
Pendo’s parents Lencer Achieng and Joseph Abanja including a couple of junior and senior police officers and also medical staff who attended to the baby, testified during the inquest.
Case closed
If the magistrate fails to link baby Pendo’s death to any police officer, the case will be dead.
Collect more evidence
The second option is that the magistrate orders the prosecution to adduce more evidence linking police to the gruesome murder of baby Pendo.
If the prosecution finds compelling evidence, the case is sustained. If it does not build a water-tight case, the case flops, and justice eludes the young angel.
Conviction for murder or manslaughter
The last possible option the magistrate has is to link the death of baby Pendo to police brutality. This would result in conviction of the suspected police officer.
If convicted of murder, this would be the second high-profile murder case to be concluded after the case that lead to former OCS Mutua’s death sentence.
In submissions in 2018, lawyers led by Richard Onsongo, urged the magistrate to hold police and their bosses to account.