UPDATE 1-Kenyan police on trial over killing of British aristocrat's son


Reuters | Updated: 22-01-2019 22:14 IST | Created: 22-01-2019 22:14 IST
UPDATE 1-Kenyan police on trial over killing of British aristocrat's son

Four Kenyan policemen went on trial in Mombasa on Tuesday accused of killing the son of a British aristocrat in police custody in 2012. The trial is seen as a sign that Kenya's security services are being held accountable for the use of excessive force and extrajudicial killings after the creation of a police oversight authority in 2011 encouraged prosecutions.

Alexander Monson was found dead in his cell after being arrested for what the police said was smoking cannabis during a night out in Diani, near Mombasa on Kenya's coast. Naftali Chege, Charles Wangombe Munyiri, Baraka Bulima and John Pamba are accused of killing the 28-year-old, son of Nicholas, the 12th Baron Monson, and heir to a family estate in Lincolnshire, in eastern England. They have denied the charges.

Two reports by government pathologists, seen by Reuters, concluded that Alexander Monson had died after suffering a traumatic blow to the head. An inquest found there had been attempts to cover up the incident, and threats against witnesses. The police have said Monson died of an overdose, but his mother Hilary Monson told the court that her son had not been a drug addict at the time of his death.

"I know my son, like many youths, used drugs. He had a problem at one point, but he had gone through a great deal of suffering to sort himself out," she said. Hussein Khalid, director of the local rights group Haki Africa, said he was concerned that it had taken so long to bring the case to trial, but added:

"All the same, it's a good example for the country that finally people who were one way or another involved in the death of an innocent person while in police custody are now standing trial." (Additional reporting by Hereward Holland in Nairobi; Editing by George Obulutsa and Kevin Liffey)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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