A senior police officer who is among 11 police officers set to be charged with the murder of baby pendo has lost a bid to stop their prosecution.
This is after the court of appeal dismissed a case filed by Titus Mutune seeking to stop their prosecution at the high court.
The senior police officers are accused for the murder of Baby Pendo in the aftermath of 2017 post-election chaos.
The three judge bench unanimously agreed that if it were to halt the criminal trial on the grounds raised by Mutune, then the objectives of criminal trials will be lost.
Justices Paul Kiage, Weldon Korir and Joel Ngugi held that Mutune did not pinpoint any specific act that has given rise to his fear of an injustice or even an infringement of his rights and those of the other suspected police officers.
“Having satisfied ourselves that the applicants are not faced with imminent injustice, we find no good reason to warrant further deferral of their taking of plea and the commencement of their trial,” the court ruled.
In the case, Mutune had argued that there was glaring conflict between the municipal laws and the Rome Statute and its rules of procedure, and this being the first case of its kind in Kenya, his constitutional rights to a fair hearing will be infringed for being tried under a law that is in conflict with the Constitution.
Titus Mutune is set to be charged alongside Titus Yoma, John Chengo, Linah Kogey, Benjamin Kipkoskei, Benjamin Lorema, Volker Edambo, Cyprine Robi, Josphat Sensira, Mohamed Ali Guyo, Mohammed Baa and James Rono.
Baby Samantha Pendo was murdered following the declaration of the presidential results in the 2017 general elections after violence erupted in, among other places, the informal settlement of Nyalenda in Kisumu.
An inquest was conducted into the cause of her death, and upon conclusion of the inquest, it was determined that police officers, who included the suspects, were criminally liable for the death of Baby Pendo.
The findings were forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”) for appropriate legal action. On 26th October 2022, the DPP filed an information in the High Court, indicting 12 police officers, among them being the suspects, with multiple counts of murder, rape and torture being crimes against humanity.
