•The prosecution said psychiatrists are insisting on interviewing Mugure’s next of kin
•Mailanyi said it is not normal practice for psychiatrists to demand to interview next of kin
Image: EUTYCAS MUCHIRI
The High Court in Nyeri has for the third time postponed plea taking for the prime suspect in the murder of a woman and her two children.
Peter Mugure, 35, was supposed to appear in court for plea on Friday.
But Judge Jairus Ngaah deferred the plea taking to January 10, 2020, after senior assistant director of public prosecution Peter Mailanyi said the accused was escorted to Nyeri County Referral Hospital on December 18 and assessed by a psychiatrist.
“However the psychiatrist requires to interview the next of kin in order to compile the report according to a letter which is in the court file,” he said.
Mailanyi said prison authorities made efforts to contact his mother Anne Mugure through her telephone number but she said she was unable to travel to Nyeri from Nairobi.
She instead referred the prison authorities to the accused's lawyer.
He said the psychiatrist had not compiled the report and that was the reason the prosecution was not ready to proceed.
Mailanyi further told the court that it was not a normal practice for psychiatrists to demand to interview the next of kin, saying the same happened at Nanyuki where the psychiatrist also demanded to speak to the next of kin.
He however said it was the responsibility of the defense lawyer to ensure the relative appears before the psychiatrist at the hospital.
He said the accused could be escorted back to the hospital in the company of the mother on January 2.
“So in that case, we can defer the plea until the next session,” he said.
Wanjiku Muguro who was holding brief for the accused's lawyer Cliff Ombeta did not object to the deferment of the plea.
Muguro told the court that Ombeta’s effort to reach the mother had been unsuccessful but said the defense would still try to look for her.
The judge directed that the plea be deferred pending the interviewing of the next of kin by the psychiatrist.
The second accused in the case Collins Pamba pleaded not guilty when he appeared in the same court on Thursday.
Pamba, 21, worked as a casual labourer at the Laikipia military airbase.
The two are the suspects in the murder of Joyce Syombua, 34, and her 10-year-old daughter Shanice Maua and son Prince Michael, 5, in October.
Pamba allegedly committed the offence alongside Mugure, a former KDF Ex-major.