DPP suffers setback in Tecra Muigai’s death inquest

Tecra Muigai

Keroche Breweries heiress Tecra Muigai who died after a fall in Lamu.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

A Nairobi court on Tuesday declined to move the inquest into the death of Keroche heiress Tecra Muigai to Lamu.

Senior Principal Magistrate Zainab Abdul ruled that the inquest will be conducted at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had pressed to conduct in Lamu where he said key witnesses are based.

The DPP said the decision to call for an inquest was informed by a review of the data which the DPP received from investigators showing lack of evidence to sustain a murder charge against Mr Omari Lali.

“There was no evidence to sustain a murder charge against Lamu boat operator who had been accused of murdering Tecra Muigai,” the DPP said after reviewing the evidence collected by police.

Prosecutors had told the court that the DPP dropped the murder case against Mr Lali then ordered for an inquest saying it was the best option, so as to establish the cause of Tecra’s death.

He said majority of  the witnesses alluded to by Tecra's mother Tabitha Karanja in her correspondence to the office of the DPP are expert witnesses and that nothing bars them from testifying in Lamu.