Officer has a case to answer

• Court rules that he be put on his defence over killings during poll dispute protests

A police officer who was captured on video shooting at protesters during the post-election violence in Kisumu has a case to answer, a court has ruled.

High Court judge, Mr Justice Fred Ochieng’, found that the prosecution had established a case against Mr Edward Kirui in a murder trial and put him on his defence.

Once an accused person is put on his or her defence, it means that they are required to call witnesses to defend themselves against the accusations. At this stage the court cannot find one guilty or not until the defence is heard.

In his ruling on Monday, the judge said ballistic evidence adduced in court appears to have linked the bullet head retrieved from the body of a victim to the gun which had been issued to Mr Kirui.

Mr Johnstone Mwongela, a ballistic expert in his testimony earlier in the case, had said markings on the bullet retrieved from Mr George William Onyango’s body showed that it was fired from Cpl Kirui’s rifle.

He told the court that each rifle had unique rifling markings after firing. He likened the markings to fingerprints.

Mr Mwongela had said that three rifles, two of them Chinese-made and similar to AK-47s and a G-3 gun, were submitted to him from Kondele Police Station for tests.

The expert examined all of them and found out that they were all in good working condition.

He also test-fired each of the guns to get the markings and formed the opinion that the bullet retrieved from Mr Onyango’s body was fired from a Chinese-made rifle serial number 3008378, then held by the corporal.

The judge also noted that from evidence brought by the prosecution, Mr Kirui, who is accused of killing Mr Onyango and Mr Ismail Chacha was present at the scene of shooting.

Mr Kirui is said to have committed the crime at Kondele market in Kisumu on January 16, 2008.

A total of 21 witnesses who were called by the prosecution testified against Mr Kirui. Among those who testified was foreign journalist Lucy Hannan who was covering the post-election violence.

Ms Hannan who works for UK’s Channel 4, had said the officer, who was camouflaged, ran after two young men with his gun up and then fired at them.

After shooting the two, she had said, the officer kicked one of them in a casual manner as he lay on the ground. She said none of the protesters had any weapon at the time they were shot.

“There was no obvious trigger to the shooting,” said the witness.Mr Kirui is expected to present his defence to court on April 21.