The
Mountain Journal
High
Court has set free a secondary school student who five years ago was charged
with murder of a female colleague.
Judge
Kanyi Kimondo acquitted Phillip Chege Mwangi who had been charged with the murder
of Milka Muthoni Wanjiru in March 2017.
In
his judgement, Kimondo said from the analysis of the evidence produced at the
trial the court cannot be persuaded that the prosecution failed to prove the
case.
Chege
and Muthoni were students at St Phillips Gikindu Secondary school in Kamacharia
in Murang’a County and last spotted on March 28, 2017, walking home from
school.
The
judge said the directorate of public prosecution produced only two witnesses as
the court summons dated October 9, 2018, and October 9, 2019, calling for more
witnesses were not acted upon.
“The
investigating officer Stanley Mwaura and who recorded the statement from the
accused person was in court on October 30, 2017, and did not give evidence,”
said the judge.
In
the judgement, the judge added that there was no sufficient evidence to place the
accused on his defence.
After
the deceased failed to return home at 7 pm, a search was conducted in the
locality before the body was discovered in a nearby bush and her school bag was
found 50 metres away.
In
the same court, a man who had been sentenced to serve 10 years in prison on a
count of defiling a nine-year-old girl had his sentenced set aside.
Walter
Gikonyo was set free after the judge allowed his appeal lodged after he
contested a jail term imposed by Kangema Senior Principal Magistrate Peter
Kiama.
The judge ruled that the evidence that was
provided by the prosecution was not sufficient to warrant the imprisonment.
“On
the totality of the evidence I have
reached to a conclusion that the prosecution did not prove the charge of
defilement beyond a reasonable doubt. It must follow as a corollary that the
conviction was unsafe,” said the Judge.
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