Kianjokoma six: Court certifies case as urgent
The six police officers accused of killing two brothers in Kianjokoma, Embu when they appeared at the Milimani courthouse on August 17, 2021.
The High Court has certified as urgent a suit by six police officers detained over the killing of two brothers in Embu County.
The officers are seeking to be spared murder charges, and instead want the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to opt for an inquest into the deaths of brothers Benson Njiru and Emmanuel Mutura.
Saying the case by the six plaintiffs requires to be disposed of expeditiously, Justice Antony Mrima ordered lawyer Danstan Omari to serve all the parties within two days.
The case will be mentioned on September 1,2021 for directions and for the hearing date to be set.
Those named as respondents by the six are the Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), the DPP and the Inspector General of Police (IG).
The detained plaintiffs are Corporal Benson Mbuthia, Corporal Consolata Kariuki and Constables Nicholas Nicholas Sang Cheruiyot, Martin Msamali Wanyama, Lilian Cherono Chemuna and James Mwaniki.
The officers are being held at the Capital Hill Police Station.
Their defence
Emmanuel Mutura, 19, and Benson Njiru, 22, the Embu brothers who are suspected to have been killed by police.
The officers, who have been in cell since last week, insist that the brothers jumped out of a moving police vehicle then suffered fatal injuries.
The Kianjakoma six say evidence recorded from two suspects who had been arrested alongside the deceased for disobeying curfew rules “witnessed the two jump from the speeding police truck ferrying them for detention at Manyatta police station.”
When police arrived at the station, the court was told, they noticed two of the 10 suspects they had arrested for violating curfew orders were missing.
They were, however, informed by other suspects the two had jumped out of the high speed driven police truck.
Police returned to the same route and “recovered the lifeless bodies of the two at the road where they hit the tarmac.”
“Police never took the two brothers into the forest where they allegedly clobbered them to death,” Mr Omari said.
Mr Omari stated that the DPP had directed the six be charged with murder before the truth into the cause of the death had been known.
The six are asking the court to restrain the DPP from charging them with murder pending the outcome of the inquest.
