Fate of officers in schoolgirl shooting to be known next week

The Mombasa High Court will next week give a ruling whether the two police officers accused of killing a school girl in Kinango, Kwale County last year have a case to answer.

Justice Martin Muya said the matter would be determined November 10th in Mombasa.

The ruling intends to end the controversy surrounding the killing of Kwekwe Tandaza who was allegedly shot dead by policemen hunting down her uncle, a suspected criminal on August 22, 2014.

Mombasa County state council officer, Mr Alexander Muteti, maintained that the two police officers have a case to answer, adding that they acted unprofessionally by firing in a dark house.

The officer who was giving submission before the court also dismissed claims that the suspect was armed with a panga, claiming that the statement was fake and deliberately manufactured to hide justice.

He further insisted that there was no information from police records to confirm that the deceased was armed, adding that officers who were conducting the operation never recovered the panga allegedly used during the incident.

However, the two lawyers, Cliff Ombeta and Jared Magolo, representing the two police officers Veronica Gitahi and Police Constable Bakari Mzee, maintained that an AK47 rifle used by one of the officers had a panga cut mark, a fact confirming that the deceased was armed.

In September, a senior police officer who investigated the killing placed the “wanted criminal” uncle of the deceased at the scene of the shooting.

The investigator, Stephen Muli, also displayed firearms, live ammunition and a panga retrieved from the scene.

It was an incident that rocked the country’s police force.

School going girl Kwekwe Mwandaza was felled by a stray bullet allegedly fired from the muzzle of a police officer’s gun on August 22, 2014 after the officers had gone to arrest her uncle suspected to be a criminal.

Human rights groups and Kwekwe’s family were up in arms terming the killing an extra judicial act.

The DCIO of Matuga, Stephen Muli, had been tasked to investigate the event and he displayed guns used in the incident. One of the guns, an Ak47 rifle, had a panga cut mark ,which Muli said was inflicted by the uncle.

Muli, who appeared as prosecution witness before High Court Judge Martin Muya, said that the person who had used the panga to cut the rifle was allegedly aiming at the head of the police officer holding the rifle.

The court was also shown four used cartridges, the AK47 rifle and its magazine with 27 bullets, a pistol that had 13 bullets and a panga.

Emily Rogena, a family forensic pathologist in her testimony told the court that the injury found on the deceased’s head indicates that it was from a gunshot fired from a high velocity weapon.

The two officers denied the murder charges.