Kenyan police will be put on trial over death of peer’s son
AN aristocrat who had spent nearly nine years trying to prove that kenyan policemen murdered his son received fresh hope of justice yesterday.
A judge ruled that the trial of four men accused of beating Alexander Monson to death in May 2012 should go ahead.
Alexander’s father Nicholas, the 12th Baron Monson, told of his relief that a bid by defence lawyers to throw out the case has been dismissed.
Lord Monson, 65, spoke of the agonising mental and physical toll that the two-year prosecution has taken him and his ex-wife hilary. The case will resume on May 10, nine days before the anniversary of Alexander’s death. The 28- year- old was arrested on suspicion of smoking cannabis outside a nightclub at a kenyan beach resort and died a day later in hospital having suffered a traumatic blow to the head.
Officers at the police station where he was held insisted that he had died of a drugs overdose, despite two post- mortem reports detailing blunt-force trauma injuries across his body and a major head injury.
In January 2019, the four police officers went on trial accused of murder but their lawyers had been attempting to derail the case arguing there was no case to answer.
Yesterday a judge in the high Court in Mombasa ruled that the trial of Naftali Chege, Charles Wangombe Munyiri, Baraka Bulima and John Pamba will continue.
Judge erick Ogolla said no evidence had been presented to show that the young aristocrat was assaulted anywhere other than within the police station, adding: ‘The accused should tell the court what happened, since the deceased was arrested in good health.’
Lord Monson, who has a 1,200acre estate near Lincoln, said: ‘It’s such a relief. We were very surprised by this application to have the case dismissed. I just hope there is a real commitment from the kenyan authorities to get this wrapped up now.’
The family’s bid for justice has been obstructed by incompetence, cover-ups and the grindingly slow kenyan legal system.
A 2015 inquest into Alexander’s death heard that he had suffered internal bleeding on his brain and severe bruising which suggested he had been kicked in the groin.
In 2018, the inquest ruled he had died unlawfully and that the police officers killed him. The magistrate said: ‘his [Alexander’s] death was not natural, neither was it due to drugs.
‘his life was cut short by police and, therefore, the director of public prosecutions should prosecute the officers mentioned.’
Now Lord Monson fears the accused could flee, as they are on currently on bail.
‘ I hope that they will be remanded in custody because it is a constant worry,’ he said.
‘They could just slip over the border anywhere. That would be the ultimate farce if, by the time the judge comes to the conclusion, they don’t turn up to face the verdict.
‘Alex walked into that police station healthy and he never walked out again.
‘I just have to be stoic and patient but it has been such a long haul for us. It has been so hard, but we will continue.
‘It has had an effect, both mentally and physically, but we cannot stop fighting.’
Yesterday hilary Monson, who lives in kenya, said: ‘We are happy with this ruling and we hope at the end of day justice for my late son will be served.’
Lord Monson’s other son rupert Green – the product of a brief relationship following the peer’s divorce from Alexander’s mother – took his own life in 2017 aged 21 after becoming hooked on skunk cannabis .