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Thirty five witnesses have already testified. The court is remaining with two more.
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However, the court will be recalling six witnesses who had already given their testimony in the case.
Image: FILE
The High Court has ruled that the late Kabete MP George Muchai's murder trial will proceed from where it stopped after the Judge who was handling the matter retired.
Four of the accused persons wanted the matter to start afresh and three had opposed the same.
Justice Kanyi Kimondo who will be proceeding with the matter will be the third judge to handle the case since the accused persons were arraigned in court eight years ago.
The Judge said the case is an old matter and it will be an injustice to the accused persons, victims and prosecution if it starts afresh.
Thirty five witnesses have already testified. The court is remaining with two more.
However, the court will be recalling six witnesses who had already given their testimony in the case.
Among them is Pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor, a witness from Safaricom who will be producing the call data, and another who dealt with the Cctv footage of where the murder incident took place.
The case will now proceed for hearing from December 4-7.
Article 50 (2) (e) (l) & (4) of the Constitution requires that a trial be concluded without undue delay.
The Muchai murder trial has been in court since 2015 when the suspects were first charged.
They were each granted a cash bail of Sh500,000 this year but none of them has been able to raise the terms set by the court.
Those facing the charges are Eric Isabwa alias chairman, Raphael Kimani alias Kim Butcher, Mustapha Kimani alias Musto, Stephen Astiva alias Chokore, Jane Wanjiru alias Shiro, Margaret Njeri and Simon Wambugu.
They have denied killing the former lawmaker, his two bodyguards and a driver.
The last time the matter was in court, government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor said Muchai died out of multiple injuries caused by a single gunshot.
Oduor, who is the prosecution's 35th witness, said Muchai was shot at close range with either a G3 rifle or AK47 gun.
He ruled out any possibility of a shotgun. He told trial judge Bwonwong'a that the gunshot entered through the right side of his abdomen to his right nipple.
"The area was blackened. Meaning burning of the skin around the entry caused by fragments of metal and gunpowder," the witness said.
Muchai was dressed in a stained black suit at the time his body was taken to Lee Funeral Home in February 2015 for a postmortem. He had on a white shirt and a white vest.
Oduor said he had lost a lot of blood, which explained the pale condition his body was in.
He had rib fractures and there was bleeding on both sides of his chest.
The doctor explained that Muchai’s heart was mildly enlarged. He presumed it might have been hypertensive.
His liver weighed 1,500 grams meaning it was fatty. His stomach was normal, it contained food.
His kidneys, Oduor said, had features of what is known as nephropathy. "This is a feature seen in people who have hypertension or diabetes," he said.
The doctor also took samples from his liver, kidney, blood, stomach and other organs for a toxicology examination.
He said he found it necessary to do so to know the level of alcohol in Muchai’s blood. He wanted to know whether he was too intoxicated to react.
The doctor has, however, never received the results of the toxicology examination to date.
He, however, clarified that the absence of the results couldn't have made a difference in the cause of death.