Blood gemstones of Tsavo: How famous British miner met his death

• Struggle for control of tsavorite mining operation may have led to murder

“At his office we were told he was still in Mombasa, but we decided to go to his house anyway. There were administration policemen at the gate. We asked to see him and we were let in,” he said.

Mr Miiri acknowledges having met Campbell Bridges on the day he died but denies ever having told him and his son that he was not in the area.

“What they say is not true, I was there. I don’t know where they got such information,” he said.

After the court hearing, one of the Bridges’ security people received reports that a group was blocking the road to their mine.

“We went back to the deputy OCS and asked him what he was going to do about it,” the younger Bridges said, adding that the deputy was not very cooperative.

He and his father then went back to the DC, who promised to make a call to the deputy OCS, who would, he said, help out.

“We waited for almost an hour for communication from the deputy OCS to come through. But it didn’t. The OCPD told us he was not in the area. When we went back to the deputy OCS’s office; he was no longer there. We tried his cell phone, but it was switched off,” Bruce Bridges said.

Mr Miiri said he referred the matter to the OCS and does not know what happened after that.

Mr Khaemba, the OCPD, said he had indeed received a report on the death threats issued to Mr Bridges the previous day.

“Those were the only death threat reports I have ever received about him. But on the day he was attacked I had travelled to Kericho,” he said.

Campbell Bridges, his son, and their employees headed back to the mine.

“The road was blocked. At a certain point, all six of us had to get out of the vehicle and move boulders off the road,” he said.

The younger Bridges said a group of between eight and 10 men, all of whom he knew, came running down a nearby hill towards them. When the group got close to Mr Bridges and his party, they hesitated.

“They took out whistles and started blowing, then more people came at us from all directions,” the son said. “We were also armed. I had a club and a knife, our security men had clubs and knives. The other two employees ran into the bush. My father stood unarmed.”
Then on one command, he said, all hell broke loose. “Their leader screamed ua (kill),” he said.

One of the attackers went for Mr Bridges with a spear. The 71-year-old pushed it aside with a sweeping move of his left hand, leaving himself exposed.