A Meru court has ruled that witnesses of the shooting of a Meru University student leader will testify in camera.Evans Njoroge alias Kidero was shot dead at close range on February 27, 2018 in the height of student protests held against university management.
An administration police officer Leakey Maina was arrested and charged with Kidero’s murder.High court judge Francis Gikonyo made the ruling after the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) made a motion on October 9, 2018.The application sought for reduction of witness statements before they were supplied to the defence, use of pseudonyms by witnesses during testimony and deeming of all witness statements already supplied to the defence as properly served.According to a supporting affidavit of the application by Javas Mutwiri, the protection is necessary especially because the accused person is a police officer and likely to manipulate and interfere with evidence.
The witnesses are considered as vulnerable because most of them are former colleagues of the accused and chances of them being compromised and or intimidated are high.
“The prosecution is apprehensive that the accused is out on bond and is likely to make contacts, interfere, intimidate, and or influence the witnesses through contacts,” said Patrick Namiti the prosecutor.