Mombasa, KENYA: Four police officers have been linked to the murder of Alexander John Ruman Monson, the son of British Aristocrat Lord Nicholas Monson in Diani, Kwale County.
This is according to the ruling of an inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr.Monson who died on 19th May 2012 at Palm Beach hospital in Diani.
He had been arrested and detained at Diani police station for allegedly smoking bhang and being in possession of narcotic drugs.
Mombasa court on Thursday directed the office of Department of the Public Prosecutions DPP to charge the four police officers with murder.
“I do therefore forward this ruling to the DPP with recommendations to take actions to prosecute the culprits who caused the death of the Alexander,” said senior principal magistrate Richard Odenyo in his ruling.
Police Seargent Naftali Chege, Constable John Pamba, Charles Wangombe Munyiri (former head of Tourist Police Unit in Diani) and Constable Ishamel Baraka Bulima were linked to the murder of Monson.
Odenyo also said the death of Monson was not natural and could only have been caused when he was in the custody of the police between 2:00 am and 6:00 am on 19th May 2012.
“It falls on the police officers who were present at the station between those hours to state what caused the blunt trauma on the head of the deceased,” said Odenyo.
Seargent Chege had told the court that he arrested Alexander on 18th May 2017, after a bouncer told him that there was reveler smoking bhang in the bar.
The inquest was told that personal property of the deceased including a mobile phone and ATM Card disappeared from the police station yet no officer was held accountable.
POST MORTEM
According to the pathologist who conducted post-mortem on the body of the deceased, the cause of death was due to intracranial pressure secondary to blunt force trauma.
“I have observed seemed to be the theory that some witnesses wanted to push, studied the post-mortem reports, seen the photos and I am left with only one conclusion, that the cause of death of the deceased was not natural nor was the death caused by any abuse of drugs,” ruled Odenyo.
The late Monson’s mother Hillary Lewis Martin had testified that she received a call informing her that the deceased had been arrested by police officers and was unwell and when she arrived at Palm Beach hospital, she found her son chained to a hospital bed with three police officers standing guard.
In the inquest, she however admitted that her son had drug problems but clarified that the drug problem was in the United Kingdom and it was the reason why she asked him to come to Kenya.
Ms Lewis Martin said she stayed with her son in Kenya for three years before he died and said that the deceased abandoned the drugs by himself.
The inquest also found out that the police had tried to push the drug theory as the cause of death of Alexander, and that police went to the extent of submitting blood and urine samples taken from another individual to give positive results of drugs usage.
The court ruled that all the witnesses who saw and talked with the deceased in cells at 2:00 am said he was conscious and in good health.
