• Alexander Monsoon died in 2012 while in police custody in Diani police station, Kwale County.
• A postmortem showed he died after being hit by a blunt object.
Image: FILE
Four officers charged with the murder of Alexander Monsoon, the son of British aristocrat Nicholas Monsoon started defending themselves on Tuesday.
The suspects were found to have a case to answer by Judge Erick Ogola and were put to trial.
Officers Naftali Chege, Charles Wang'ombe, John Pamba and Ismael Baraka are charged with murdering Alexander on May 19, 2012 at Diani police station in Kwale county.
Chege told the court he was patrolling the beach road in Diani with other officers when a bouncer from Tandoori club alerted them of an incident there.
“The bouncer told me that a mzungu (Alexander) was smoking bhang inside the club and he had refused to leave the premises and wanted us to intervene,” he said.
Chege said they went to where Alexander was and found that he had entered his car but was still smoking bhang.
He snatched the stub of bhang because Alexander could have destroyed or swallowed it to conceal the evidence.
Chege said he introduced himself to Alexander and his three friends, but they sneered at him, telling him that he was a junior officer.
“He told me he cannot be arrested by junior officers like me as at the time, I was a corporal and that I should call my seniors to come arrest him,” he said.
Chege called his senior who came and arrested Alexander and one of his friends as the other two had escaped.
The officer said upon a search of the car, they discovered a brown envelope which contained drugs.
After some questioning, Chege said Alexander agreed that the drugs belonged to him and requested not to be linked to the friend he had been arrested with.
Chege said he took a signed statement of the friend distancing himself from the drugs and later released him.
Chege refuted claims by the prosecution that the drugs belonged to the friend, but he had been bribed to release him.
The officer said he was not in any way involved in the death of the Briton. He had booked Alexander and handed him over to the officer on duty to assign him a cell. The narcotics unit was to take up the case.
“While booking and questioning him, I did not see any physical injury and he never complained that he was not feeling well and therefore the injuries on his head were not acquired while in my custody,” he said.
A postmortem showed Alexander died from a head injury.
Chege testified that he had served in the National Police Service for 27 years before he was interdicted due to the charges.
(edited by o. owino)