Posted: Nov 16, 2021 01:25 GMT
Alexander Monson passed away in May 2012, hours after being arrested in a tourist district southwest of Mombasa, on suspicion of using cannabis.
A court in Mombasa (Kenya) sentenced four policemen – one of them retired – to prison for the death of the son of a British aristocrat while in their custody, which occurred nine years ago. Naftali Chege, Charles Wang’ombe, Ismael Baraka and John Pamba will jointly pay 48 years in prison, according to the ruling handed down on Monday by Judge Eric Ogola, local media reported.
Alexander monson, 28, had been arrested in the early morning of May 19, 2012 outside a bar in the tourist district of Daini (southeast of Mombasa), on suspicion of using cannabis. After being sent to a police station and being detained for several hours in a cell, the officers called his father, Nicholas Monson, the 12th Baron of Monson, to inform him that his son had died from an apparent drug overdose.
The victim’s family rejected that preliminary conclusion, which absolved the uniformed officers involved of all responsibility, and pressed until years later a court case was opened in order to establish the circumstances of Alexander’s death, since suspected that he had been murdered, picks up the newspaper The Standard.
Following an investigation that began in 2015 and ended three years later, it was concluded that the young Briton had died as a result of a beating. According to ., a forensic report to which the agency had access showed severe bruising —One of them the product of a traumatic blow to the head— which led to a lethal internal hemorrhage.
According to what was sustained today by Judge Ogola, Monson was in perfect health before his arrival at the Police station, where he was “brutally tortured”, and none of the four policemen “came in time” to help him. “The drugs were put on the deceased after his death, as a cover-up,” he stressed. Among other aspects, it was also determined that there were threats against witnesses.
“Is not sufficient”
The agents involved had been taken to court in 2019, but the trial was postponed to the following year. Last March it was resumed and finally, this November 15, they were convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Chege received 15 years in prison, Wang’ombe and Pamba 12 years and Baraka 9 years. At the moment it is unknown if any of them will appeal.
After the verdict, Alexander’s parents reacted to those sentences. Hillary Martin, his mother, said that while accepting the ruling, “it is not enough for a mother who lost her child so brutally.” Anyway, be grateful that justice has been served and hope this sends a “powerful message to the Kenyan police force so that human life is respected “.
Nicholas, the father, shares his wife’s opinion and believes that the verdict “could have been stronger”, but it reassures him to know that the defendants “will face some punishment in jail.”
According to ., civilians and human rights groups in Kenya frequently accuse the National Police of brutality and carrying out extrajudicial executions. However, the officers involved are rarely charged and almost never convicted. In 2011, an independent supervisory authority was established in the country to investigate improper conduct within the forces of order, but, despite thousands of complaints, the entity has only managed to convict 13 officers.
Add Comment