Administration Police Constable, who is accused of fatally shooting a Karatina businessman on January 18, will remain in prison custody for the next 75 days pending the filing and determination of his bail or bond application by the court.
Justice Magare Kizito has directed that the officer, Peter Wamiti be remanded at the Nyeri Maximum Security Prison until May 5, when he will also hold the pre-trial conference for the matter.
The officer was on Wednesday charged with the offence of murder contrary to Section 203 as read with Section 204 of the Penal Code, one month after his arrest.
According to his charge sheet, Wamiti is accused of killing George Gathu at Rubis petrol station in Karatina in mid-January this year.
The 11pm incident occurred following an altercation between the deceased and the accused, who was on night patrol.
At the time of his death, it is said the businessman was about to get into his car and was about to drive away after the heated argument with another unidentified man.
It was then that Wamiti and his colleague followed him, and after a brief argument, Wamiti opened fire at him, killing him on the spot.
Results from a postmortem conducted last month at the Karatina sub-county hospital morgue showed that the 40-year-old Gathu was shot four times, with two bullets striking his chest.
The third bullet pierced the right shoulder and the fourth pierced his head after entering through the ear.
Wamiti however denied the offence before Justice Kizito who directed that he remains in prison remand.He also directed prison warders to ensure the accused’s safety from any reprisals from remandees since he is still a member of the disciplined forces.
“From the title, he is an officer of the National Police Service based in Nyeri where most of the people that are in there (prison) are people he may have collected.
We may not guarantee his safety outside and so I think it is important that he is brought alive during the next session.
“I have raised my concerns but when the matter comes up and he is not alive, you (prison warders) will tell me,” stated Justice Kizito.
When he first appeared before Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate Mary Gituma on January 20, Gituma directed the accused to be remanded in police custody for 14 days to allow the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to conduct its investigations into the killing.
When he appeared the second time before the SRM on February 9, the court granted a 7 days extension to IPOA to complete investigations into a matter following a revelation by the state prosecutor, Claudette Obat that IPOA was yet to complete investigations.
She also told the court that although the bulk of the investigations had been done, the remaining part had been occasioned by delays by police officers to release the firearms to IPOA for ballistic examination.
“I have a letter that was received on January 30 and that is when the firearms were handed over to IPOA, just when it was so close to the mentioned date for the suspect to come back to court.
The request was made on January 19. The IPOA were only able to forward them (firearms) for ballistics on February 2,” said Ms Obat.
“That has frustrated the investigations. I understand that the suspect has rights; similarly, the deceased has rights and it will only be fair if their rights are both balanced.
It will also only be fair and just if the deceased is also given an opportunity for a fair trial and that involves complete investigations that will also help to establish if the suspect is to be charged or not,” she added.
Last week, Justice Maureen Odero deferred plea taking by a week to allow for Wamiti to undergo a mental assessment to determine if he was fit to stand trial.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, Justice Kizito further directed that the legal teams file their skeleton submissions within the next 30 days.
The matter will continue in the next two months.
By Wangari Mwangi
