Family pleads for in-depth investigations regarding a murder case.

Family pleads for in-depth investigations regarding a murder case.

JANE MUGAMBI 21ST NOV 2010.

A family in Kirinyaga South is calling on the government to intervene and ensure thorough investigations are conducted regarding a case in which their son Alexander Chomba is being accused of killing a resident Karuangi village in PIAI area.

The family says that police in Kirinyaga south are insisting on Charging their son with murder whereas reports by the post mortem investigations and witnesses indicates that the deceased may have died due to a farm accident.

The accused father Cyprian Ndambiri says that its is unfair for the police to hold his son in custody since November 12 at Wang'uru police station without even considering talking to his sons colleagues at a quarry where they engaged in murram digging during the day of the deceased death.

Ndambiri said that the police would have considered questioning a boy who is believed to have found the 60 year old Muchira Gutu moments after the incident who told the boy that he had been pierced by a nappier grass stem in his farm.

The OCPD Apollo Onyonyi reiterates that the accused slashed his neighbor with a Panga after disputes over a bean patch adding that police they have a strong case to arraign him in court and charge him with murder tomorrow (Today).

Post mortem investigation reports carried out by Dr. S. M. Maingi, a Pathologist at the Embu Provincial General Hospital seems to support the accused claims of innocence as it concludes that Muchira died of excessive blood loss from a shallow wound that is contradictory with the claims of a panga cut. The report concludes that deceased died of “acute blood loss due to a superficial leg injury.”

John Nyaga, who had hired the accused and his friends to load the murram, notes that he was with Chomba until the time he paid them and he drove off. It was as he drove from the quarry that he had screams after the deceased whose deteriorating condition was discovered after walking home

Although Nyaga informed the area chief and the police that he had spent the day with the accused there is no investigating officer who has visited him to establish the authenticity of his point.

On his part, the accused observes that the dispute over the beans patch had already been solved amicably after the deceased reportedly explained how some herbicides may have unintentionally been blown by the wind to his patch.

He says that he left his home and was later to meet with Nyaga who was looking for people to load murram into a track but was later to be arrested and charged with murder.

The family says they fear their son, who is the sole provider for his young family that includes a three-year old daughter and 11-month old son faces a long and costly trial for a crime he did not commit.

They are now appealing to higher police authorities to intervene and ensure thorough investigations are conducted for justice and fairness to be upheld in the case.

Ends…