Four Kenya police convicted of manslaughter of British aristocrat

Kenya's High Court on Monday found four policemen guilty of the manslaughter of Alexander Monson, the son of a British aristocrat who was found dead in a police cell in the beach town of Diani in 2012. Judge Eric Ogola issued the verdicts in the coastal city of Mombasa at the end of a high-profile case that has shone a spotlight on police brutality in the east African country.


Reuters | Updated: 15-11-2021 19:49 IST | Created: 15-11-2021 19:49 IST
Four Kenya police convicted of manslaughter of British aristocrat

Kenya's High Court on Monday found four policemen guilty of the manslaughter of Alexander Monson, the son of a British aristocrat who was found dead in a police cell in the beach town of Diani in 2012.

Judge Eric Ogola issued the verdicts in the coastal city of Mombasa at the end of a high-profile case that has shone a spotlight on police brutality in the east African country. Sentences are set to be announced later in the day.

Monson, 28, was found dead after being arrested for what police said was smoking cannabis during a night out in Diani, near Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. "The drugs were planted on the deceased after his death as a cover up," said Ogola, adding that Monson was in perfect health before his arrival at the station and that he was "brutally tortured" while there.

The four policemen are Naftali Chege, Charles Wangombe Munyiri, Baraka Bulima and John Pamba. The four hung their heads after the verdict was announced while one cried quietly. "I am satisfied that the death of the deceased was caused through unlawful omission on the part of the accused persons for failing to seek medical care for the deceased in good time," Ogola said.

Monson was the son of Nicholas, the 12th Baron Monson, and heir to a family estate in Lincolnshire in eastern England. The elder Monson was in the court room and nodded slowly as the verdicts were announced. Two reports by government pathologists https://www.reuters.com/places/africa/article/us-kenya-court/kenyan-police-on-trial-over-killing-of-british-aristocrats-son-idUSKCN1PG1XA, seen by Reuters at the time, concluded that 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.

Kenyan police face frequent accusations of brutality and extrajudicial killings from civilians and rights groups, but officers are rarely charged and almost never convicted. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority was established in 2011 to investigate police misconduct and has received millions of dollars in foreign funding. Kenyans have filed thousands of complaints against police since its creation, but the organization has only secured 13 convictions against officers.

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

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