Keroche Breweries CEO Tabitha Karanja raises suspicion in inquest into daughter’s death

Keroche Breweries CEO Tabitha Karanja now claims that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is under influence not to prosecute those responsible for the death for her daughter Tecra Muigai.

In an affidavit filed in court, Tabitha Karanja has challenged the DPP’s bid to have the inquest into Tecra’s death transferred from the Milimani Law Courts to Lamu, saying that the move poses a threat to their lives.

“A number of things that have happened as I will detail below and the request by the DPP to this court referred to above have triggered extreme and well- founded suspicion in me and the entire family of the deceased that the conduct of the Director of Public Prosecutions is inconsistent with the constitutional and statutory principles that ought to guide the conduct of the Director of Public Prosecutions in handling this matter,” says Tabitha

She argues that, Omar Lari, the key suspect in the matter, is an influential person among boat owners and operators, as well as beach boys around Lamu Island.

Tabitha further holds that boat transport is the singular most reliable form of transport for accessing Lamu Islands hence there is real and well-founded fear in the family of the deceased that they may not travel to and from Lamu Islands to attend and participate in the inquest proceedings without significant threat to their life and safety.

“It came as a extreme shock to the family of the deceased to  learn that the Director of Public Prosecution has made another whimsical and arbitrary decision to terminate/withdraw the inquest proceedings
from the Chief Magistrates Court at Milimani Law Courts with an indication of getting the same instituted at Lamu Law Courts,” says Tabitha

The court has directed the DPP to file a response to Tabitha’s affidavit by Monday, October 14, 2020.

Omar Lali, boyfriend to the late Tecra Muigai, was in July this year set free after Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji dropped murder charges against him.

Lali has been the prime suspect in the death of Tecra who reportedly fell to her demise in the bathroom of the house they shared on May 3, 2020.

The deceased, who was also a director at her parents’ company, was laid to rest on May 16, 2020 in a private ceremony at the family’s home in Naivasha.

Lali was initially arrested in connection with the incident before being released by a Lamu court on May 28, 2020 on on a Ksh.300,000 bond following the the expiry of a 21-day detention period.