With evidence, there is no room for false steps

You probably know of such a case. A case that seems so clear-cut that you are sure the culprit will be easily found, and that the trial is more or less a formality. Then to your surprise, the case get thrown out of court. “Why?” you wonder.

Well, it all boils down to evidence. Indeed, lack of evidence has led to the discontinuation of many court cases in Kenya.

Evidence is sought during the primary investigation, when an incident has just occurred and the investigating officers either get the right evidence, or lose it all.

When a crime occurs, a complaint is made to the investigating officer.

The investigator must get the evidence that links the suspect to the victim and the scene of crime, and vice versa.

“If this evidence is not found, the case will remain pending in court,” says Mr Raphael Daudi Musau, a director at Hawk Eye Technologies Ltd, a private investigations firm in Nairobi.

Mr Musau has been to Rwanda, Germany, the US, UK and Israel to learn how investigations are conducted  in these countries.

When a crime occurs, he says, measures should be taken immediately to preserve the scene. Witnesses should be identified and their details taken so that they can be questioned further.

“However, in many cases, the first person at a crime scene might not get witnesses to give a review of what happened. This makes it difficult for investigators to trace them,” Mr Musau says, adding that the best evidence is gathered shortly after an  event occurs.

POLICE GET COMPROMISED

However, in many cases the police get compromised, says Ms Jane Mugoh, the chief executive officer and lead investigator at Trimo Security Services Ltd, another private investigations firm in Nairobi.

“Having worked as an undercover agent with the Kenya Police for eight years, and with experience in conducting investigations in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, I know that some suspects collude with the officers to conduct shoddy investigations.

There are cases where wayward police officers advise witnesses to go underground so that they cannot be traced,” says Ms Mugoh.

When that happens, the suspect(s) cannot be charged in court because of inadequate evidence through witness accounts. This also weakens the charges, if any, she adds.

Even though Kenya has enough trained personnel to carry out investigations, they do not have the necessary means to carry out the job, says Ms Mugoh. For instance, the number of vehicles at a police station might not be enough for the officers to go to different crime scenes when such incidents occur simultaneously.

SPEED OF RESPONSE

Ms Mugoh, who has been to the UK, the US, Rwanda and Tanzania to learn how investigations are conducted in those countries, says most of the police stations there have desks dedicated to specific crimes such as domestic violence, robbery and road accidents. This increases the speed of response, unlike the case in Kenya,  where an OCS handles all the cases and assignments.

Most of the investigators in Kenya are criminology graduates and diploma holders from different universities who work mainly in the police force, law firms and private investigations firms.

“However, they mostly know how to record statements and make arrests, but not how to conduct intelligence,” says Ms Mugoh, who continuously retrains her team.

Mr Musau concurs, adding that even after the nine-month training, the police lack hard skills to carry out investigations. “They need exposure and to upgrade their skills in general investigations and the examination of forensic documentation,” he says.

The placement of trained investigators also needs to be considered so that they can be evenly distributed across the country.

“This  has  cost implications, but the best training is exposure to the field through on-the-job training. If two trainees could be seconded to every police station in the country, they could  be mentored by experienced investigators,” Musau explains. This will see the country get enough well-trained investigators.

INTERFERENCE WITH EVIDENCE

One of the key factors that destroys evidence is  interference with the crime scene by police officers. A crime scene is tampered with when the police come without gloves and interfere with the fingerprints. In cases of road accidents, in some instances,  the police order that vehicles be moved to the police station before traffic officers arrive at the scene and determine which vehicle was at fault.

“Also, when trying to locate suspects on mobile phones, some call the suspects and advise them to hide. Even after they have booked the crime, some leak that information to the suspect,” adds Ms Mugoh.

In cases of sexual violence and rape, the victim’s body should not be touched without gloves. And the victim should not be exposed to water, nor should their clothes be washed.

“Washing the body or clothing will interfere with the primary investigations that can help link the suspect’s DNA to the victim. The clothes should not be removed, and if they are, they should be stored in a manilla envelope and not a polythene bag  because of the latter’s ability to retain moisture. If there is a knife with blood, it should be left the way it is,” Ms Mugoh says

Of course, the preservation of a crime scene depends on the available resources and the geographical set-up of the scene. Access to a crime should be controlled until the scene is processed and an evaluation done.

“If it is an enclosed house, it is easy for one officer to deal with it by locking up the place to control unauthorised access, excessive access and the contamination of evidence. It is difficult to control access to an open ground as it needs a more labour involving several officers to control those who might want to get too close,” says Musau.

However, evidence is also lost at the primary stages when the investigating officers do not know the relevant evidence to collect.

“This occurs when they cannot tell which evidence is reliable, credible or provable in a particular case, and this is very important,” says Musau. General evidence usually collected at crime scenes include fingerprints, any strands of hair, pieces of paper, blood, fur or clothing and any other items left at the scene. The evidence collected should be properly labelled to show what was collected, where, at what time, and by who. This helps to determine what might have been left out.

Shortcuts, laxity and impatience when information is not readily available often leads to the failure of an investigation. Because of legal, socio-economic or political pressure, many investigations are not thorough, and  hence end up with little or no evidence.

“This ends up making the investigation very costly, as it might be necessary to be start the process all over again,” Musau notes.

Once the evidence has been collected, it should be taken to a laboratory for analysis before it is released to the relevant parties and the public. This is another area where courts sometimes face another challenge. This happens when evidence is not preserved and appropriately transported to the laboratory.

IMPROPER TREATMENT OF EVIDENCE

“Once evidence is subjected to improper treatment, transportation or storage, it has reduced potential to resolve the issue at hand,” he adds

The packaging of forensic documents protects the evidence until it is examined. Manilla envelopes that are slightly larger than the item should be used. The envelope should be clearly labelled, the evidence inserted and carefully sealed by the submitter.

The right evidence will always yield the right report, Ms Mugoh says. “If the wrong specimen is collected, it will always fail in court,” she adds. Musau concurs, adding, “Each type of crime has its own standard evidence collection procedure, which looks at certain technical evidence. If this is not followed, it might not yield evidence to help in the case.” Such cases include sexual offences, gender-based violence, will forgeries and other cases involving disputed documents.

In disputed documents, where signatures, writings or prints, the seals or stamps are in dispute, forensic document examination is carried out. This detects any change in the characteristics of the fonts and typescripts, and any alterations, including an added or deleted letter. The inks used to print each document in question, and the paper texture is also examined, as some organisations use very specific paper for official documents.

Some of the commonly forged documents in Kenya are wills, professional and academic certificates and title deeds. “I have seen a contested will, which had purportedly been written at a time when the person who  authored it was lying in mortuary,” Musau says.

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Police and sleuths complement each other’s work

One of the most common crimes in Nairobi is robbery with violence. When we are called to  a crime scene, we know that we have to respond immediately. If we find that the police have not yet arrived, as often happens, we clear everyone who is there to preserve the scene and seal the area to keep members of the public away.

We also check if there are any casualties. In case there are people with serious injuries, we call the police, who then call doctors or the nearest hospital immediately. We presume that it is only a doctor who can pronounce a person dead.

After the police arrive, we begin our work. We usually represent the complainant’s interests to ensure that investigations are carried out properly. The investigative work involves dusting of fingerprints and collecting any items at the crime scene.

We dust for fingerprints and develop them at the scene and do comparisons with the complainant’s fingerprints if they were at the scene. This is done in order to eliminate their fingerprints on the spot before we hand in the suspect fingerprints to the police.

We collect items like pieces of clothing, hair, paper, traces of blood, sharp items, any left sim cards and mobile phones, and the material from garments like woollen coats or sweaters that might be found on car seats, among other items. These are dusted for fingerprints and taken to the laboratory for DNA analysis,

The police like it when they work with private detectives since the complainant cannot complain of a cover up. Even in the developed countries, private detectives work alongside the police.

I would urge members of the public to keep off crime scenes. Avoiding a scene of crime is keeping yourself safe, since sometimes the suspects might not be far. Besides, if you are found at a crime scene, chances are that no matter how much you plead innocence, you stand to be the first suspect and end up wasting time and resources to prove your innocence.

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Why the fingerprint is so important in search for evidence

The fingerprint forms an integral part of any evidence collection, be it at a crime scene or document examination. This is because every person has a fingerprint unique to them.

“An identity card (ID) can be copied – the ID number, serial number and the photograph on it. But the fingerprint can never be stolen or forged,” emphasises Musau, who designed the first-generation national ID in Kenya.

On the ID card, what the person owns is the fingerprint. The other details can be replaced on wills or any other legally-binding document, but the fingerprint cannot, he says. That is why the national ID card is the standard documentation for any transaction in Kenya.

Thus, if fingerprint technology is adopted in transactions, the resolution of cases involving cybercrime fraud would be easy. This is even though the level of security and spot checks that organisations have put in place is considerable.

Musau was the first Kenyan to be trained on fingerprint analysis in Kenya, in 1962 by the colonial government and was the only African at the CID fingerprint bureau. In 1970, he worked as officer in-charge of the criminal fingerprint bureau, and later chief finger-print officer. He has trained more than 500 fingerprint technicians who are working with the government, and retired from civil service in 1997.

 In 1998, he established Hawk Eye Technologies – a private investigations firm that specialises in fingerprint technology, document examination, crime scene investigation and management, general investigations, security and training.