the wrong man to the pirate kidnap atrocity?
A crazed gang dragged Judith Tebbutt from her Kenya holiday hut, kidnapped her – and shot her husband dead. So why are they hanging a man she’s never seen?
though if the Kenyan theory was true, he presumably must have had vital clues to the gang’s whereabouts and identity.
In any event, the Yard’s 21st Century expertise was to have little impact: there was no forensic evidence linking Kololo to the crime.
But although he failed to come up with any evidence, Mr Hibberd’s stature as a senior Yard officer meant his opinions carried huge weight. Before the trial started, he set down a formal, written statement, which was later read out in court. Its influence was enormous: when Judge J.M. Munguti delivered his final judgment, he closely echoed both the reasoning and the language of Mr Hibberd’s account.
In Mr Hibberd’s view, the critical piece of evidence was a pair of ‘Tanga shoes,’ a type of plastic sandal. According to Mr Hibberd, distinctive Tanga footprints were found leading from the beach where the gang landed their boat to the bandas. ‘These appear to be the shoeprints of someone searching the bandas for potential victims,’ he said.
He added in his statement: ‘Kololo was arrested wearing Tanga shoes. It is extremely unusual to find these at the resort. None of the staff are allowed to wear these shoes. All of the suspects in the boat [with Mrs Tebbutt] were barefooted.’
Mr Hibberd went on: ‘Tanga shoes are predominantly worn by Somalians and are not allowed to be worn at Kiwayu Safari Village. To have a set of Tanga footprints at the resort is highly unusual and significant.’ He repeated these claims in court.
AN UNFAIR TRIAL?
APART from the lack of forensic evidence, the prosecution faced a further difficulty. Interviewed by police after her release, Mrs Tebbutt, of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, was clear the gang had turned the lights on when they burst in. But when detectives showed her photos of Kololo, she said: ‘Prior to seeing these images, I had never seen this man before. He was not one of the men who took me out of the banda, who were present on the boat or held me during my time in captivity.’ It was possible there had been someone else present grappling with her husband, but if so, she had not seen him.
There is no legal aid in Kenya other than for defendants charged with murder, and Kololo was ‘only’ charged with robbery with violence and kidnapping. A lawyer arrived to represent him at one hearing, but did not bother to speak to him.
For the whole of the prosecution case, dragged out over months, Kololo had no lawyer. Moreover, he is not fluent in Swahili, the language in which the trial was conducted. He asked repeatedly for an interpreter to translate into his mother tongue, Boni – but was refused.
Mr Olaba said: ‘A totally uneducated man, he was forced to crossexamine witnesses speaking in a language he did not fully understand. To make matters worse, Mr Hibberd and Mrs Tebbutt gave evidence in English, which he doesn’t know.’ Their evidence was translated into Swahili.
So what of the Tanga shoes? They were produced in court as an exhibit, but none of those who first came into contact with Kololo when he emerged from the forest mentioned them. And as for Mr Hibberd’s claim that they were worn mainly by Somalis, several witnesses said they were common in Kenya.
Mr Hibberd admitted they did not bear Kololo’s fingerprints. If they were tested for his DNA, this was never mentioned. Nor were there any photos of the footprints.
Astonishingly, Corporal Geoffrey Loldoss, the Kenyan officer who arrested Kololo, told the court that the defendant ‘was not wearing any shoes’.
Almost at the end of the trial, Mr Olaba agreed to represent the defendant for free. Aware that the shoes were too small, he asked Kololo to try them on. Mr Olaba said yesterday: ‘He couldn’t get into them at all, much less walk.’
It was all to no avail. On July 27 last year, the judge convicted Kololo and decreed he ‘suffer death, as provided by law’.
DEATH ROW, MOMBASA
SCOTLAND YARD and the Foreign Office have agreed to respond to the pending High Court action by June 4. The action, brought by the human rights charity Reprieve, asks the court to issue a statement saying the involvement of UK authorities was unlawful because Kololo’s trial was an abuse of natural justice, and – because he faced a death sentence – a breach of guidelines that say British police may offer only ‘limited assistance’ when a suspect faces such punishment.
Scotland Yard refused to comment on the case. The Foreign Office said the Met’s help followed ‘assurances from the Kenyan authorities that UK assistance would not directly or significantly contribute to a violation of human rights and/or international humanitarian law’.
But Reprieve’s Maya Foa said: ‘I fail to see what assurances they can have been given when he was facing what amounted to a mandatory death sentence, and a farce of a trial.’
Meanwhile, Kololo languishes on death row at the notorious Shimo la Tewa maximum security prison in Mombasa. One source said: ‘Shimo la Tewa is one of the worst places in Kenya. Just its name instills fear when prisoners are told they are to be moved there.’
Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987, but Mr Olaba pointed out this policy could change with the government or shifting political whims.
The Mail on Sunday approached Mrs Tebbutt via publishers Faber and Faber, where her husband was finance director and which published her account of her ordeal, A Long Walk Home. A spokesman said she could not make any comment.
Mr Olaba said: ‘A favourable judgment from the court in London would help Kololo enormously. It could tip the balance. Ultimately, it could save his life.’