Endarasha: Murder case witnesses’ accounts differ
A few of the sixteen people who appeared before Nyeri high court on April 28, 2011. They have been charged with two counts of murder at Endarasha high school. Two witnesses gave differing accounts as to how a list containing the names of nine student suspects was compiled. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI
Two witnesses in the Endarasha Boys High School murder case on Thursday gave contrasting accounts of how a list of nine student suspects was compiled.
The list was compiled from confidential notes made by Form One students on the night of October 17, 2010, when two of their colleagues died in a dormitory fire.
The nine are among the 16 suspects who appeared before Mr Justice Joseph Sergon for the hearing of a case in which they are charged with murdering Kennedy Karogo Njuguna and Joseph Mwangi Kamau. (READ: Nine charged over Endarasha school fire)
A teacher at the school, Mr Josephat Gathiari, told the court that the list was compiled by the then deputy principal and himself from the papers submitted by the students, then they handed the list to the police.
But former deputy principal Martin King’ori told the court that they handed over the papers to the police officers to compile a list of the names that were most frequent on the papers.
“We gave the police the papers, from which they compiled information. They then handed the papers back to us and we burnt them,” he said.
Mr Gathiari, in his testimony, named eight of the boys he said were in the list, before identifying the ninth when he was asked to identify them in the dock.
He said that he believed the list containing the names of the nine was still in the custody of the school, most likely in the principal’s office.
Unlike Mr King’ori, he told the court that police officers were not shown the confidential notes.
“The anonymous notes were burnt the same week to ensure that they were not seen by anyone else.
They were not shown to the police because they did not ask for them,” he said, while responding to questions from defence lawyers.
The court was also shown a 10-litre jerrican suspected to have been used to carry petrol to the dormitory.
It was found a few metres from the burnt building by Mr Gathiari and another teacher during a routine inspection after the fire.
The defence lawyers asked the judge to relax the personal bond terms for the students, which require them to make monthly appearances before the court.
The judge agreed with the defence and allowed the accused to make their next appearance on the hearing date.
The case was adjourned to August 8, to allow the students to attend classes in second term.
