Former police chief Nahashon Mutua has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of murder.
The former Ruaraka OCS Nahashon Mutua killed an inmate Martin Koome six years ago.
The case was being held at the High Court of Kenya by Judge Stella Mutuku. In her verdict, she said, “The Prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the police caused the deceased suffering while in cells which caused his death.”
Where it Started
On the night of October 19, 2013, at Baba Dogo Estate in Nairobi, Martin Koome Manyara had a domestic brawl with his wife, after which he attempted to strangle their child.
His neighbours, who were alarmed by the incidence after he chased his wife away, alerted Ruaraka Police station officers, who booked him at the station for attempting to kill.His wife went to the station the next day to check on him.
She was informed that he fell ill and was taken to Kenyatta National Hospital.On reaching KNH, the woman found her husband dumped on a bench, unattended. He could not talk, hear or move.
His clothes were soaked in blood; head swollen and blood oozing from the ears. He was groaning in pain. He died a few hours later while being attended to by doctors.
The Verdict
Judge Martha Mutuku ruled that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Chief Inspector Nahashon Mutua killed Koome by clobbering him with a metal bar in the cell and immersing his head in water.
“How can a police officer of his rank not know that the kind of brutality he used would result into death,” posed Mutuku, adding: “I find him guilty as charged and convict him accordingly.”
The former police chief had argued that the wounds on Martin Koome’s body were inflicted by another inmate which led the Judge to pose “Why wasn’t the fight heard by police officers who were on duty or recorded in the Occurrence Book? It goes to show that he was in a cover-up mission,” ruled Mutuku.
Autopsy
KNH doctors said Koome had deep wounds on the head, cuts on the lower lip, eight fractured ribs, brain haemorrhage and excessive bleeding from the neck that caused his death.
To cover up his action, the OCS implicated one Kelvin Odhiambo, who had also been arrested and was in the cell, with the murder, and charged him.
The judge also found that Mutua’s scheme to cover up included faking a report, setting other suspects held at the station free and paying medical fees for one of them to testify against Odhiambo.