The police officer who initially investigated Jimmy Baburam's death was allegedly forced to stop taking the statements of his wife and her American lover.
Corporal James Ndegwa told the Malindi High Court on Thursday that he got the orders from the then Watamu OCS and Sergent Abdi Shee, who is facing charges of conspiracy to cover up murder.
Ndegwa made the revelations while testifying before Justice Dora Chepkwony.
Baburam, a Nairobi-based businessman, was killed
while on a family vacation
at Medina Palm Resort in Watamu on July 26, 2015.
Ndegwa said he started taking statements from Baburam's widow Amina Shiraz and her lover Jacob Schmazle, who is a fugitive, on that day.
He said he was halfway done when the Sergeant told him to stop harassing Shiraz, who
allegedly conspired with the American to kill her husband.
"Abdi came to the office immediately after she started giving me the statement and was followed by the OCS. He told me to stop harassing the wife of the deceased because she was still grieving," he said.
Said Dzombo, a security guard at Medina Palms in Malindi, testifies at Malindi High Court, in the case of the suspected murder of Nairobi businessman Jimmy Baburam, April 12, 2018. /ALPHONCE GARI
Ndegwa said Shiraz started crying after the OCS told him to stop harassing her.
"I suggested
a way to perform the postmortem
because Shiraz had been insisting that her husband be buried on the same day according to the Islamic faith."
The Corporal further said he found Schmazle
at the balcony of Amani House in Medina Palms where Baburam and his wife had been staying before he died.
The man was bleeding, he said.
“I asked him how he got the wound but before he could answer, Shiraz told me he fell due to drunkenness. I asked Schmazle
to to take me to where he had fallen and he showed me an area where there were bloodstains," he said.
The officer further told justice
Chepkwony that a security guard told him he found the two trying to pull the deceased out of the pool in which he is said to have drowned.
Shiraz’s lawyers Ahmednasir Abdullahi and Jared Magolo accused the police officer of giving a testimony outside his written statement and claimed he was coached.
In response to Abdullahi
's question about being coached, Ndegwa maintained that his was an honest account of what transpired on that day.
Said Dzombo, a security guard at Medina Palms in Malindi, hands over pictures while testifying at Malindi High Court, in the case of the suspected murder of Nairobi businessman Jimmy Baburam, April 12, 2018. /ALPHONCE GARI
Dzombo, the security guard assigned to patrol of the Medina palms on the day of the death, said he saw Shiraz, Baburam and the American drinking at about 4 am while on his way to the main gate.
After 10 to 12 minutes, he told the court on Thursday, he was called by the security guard manning the villa and told "a guest was inside the water".
“[I found the man] lying beside the pool. His wife said he was epileptic and had started having seizures while swimming," he said.
Dzombo said Shiraz kept on saying her husband was drunk and that when the hotel duty manager arrived with a first aid kit, she asked him to
take care of Schmazle first.
The judge ordered Shiraz to stop reporting at Gigiri police station in Nairobi weekly
as ordered earlier.
The hearing will resume on September 24 and continue until September 27 at Mombasa Law Courts.
The police officer and watchman are among 18 witnesses in the case.
Eight are yet to testify while two had witness protection orders.
More on testimonies: