Witness says Thuo's drink was not tested
Mr Paul Wainaina alias Sheki (left) with his lawyer Cliff Ombeta at a Nairobi court on February 23, 2016 during the hearing of a case where is charged alongside five others with the murder of former Juja MP George Thuo. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
A witness told the court that a list of exhibits the police generated with accompanying photographs was a mismatch of what she had seen a waiter serve Mr Thuo.
Six people have been charged with Mr Thuo’s murder.
She said she heard Mr Thuo thank a woman called Venessa, who had offered him another beer bottle and left. The woman is one of the murder suspects.
Exhibits collected at a bar where former Juja MP George Thuo was allegedly poisoned did not include the drink he had been served, a court heard Tuesday.
A prosecution witness told the court that a list of exhibits the police generated with accompanying photographs was a mismatch of what she had seen a waiter serve Mr Thuo, and later a friend, who also bought him a bottle of beer before he collapsed and died.
“I was the cashier on November 17, 2013, a waiter served him with a cold and warm Tusker which were taken to a table he was seating at with his friends. The bottles were corked,” said Ms Phylis Wanjiku.
She was testifying in a case in which the owner of Porkies bar in Thika, Mr Paul Wainaina Boiyo alias Sheki, Mr Christopher Lumbazio Andika alias Lumba, Mr Andrew Karanja Wainaina, Mr Samuel Kuria Ngugi alias Visi, Ms Esther Ndinda Mulinge and Ms Ruth Watahi Irungu alias Atlanta Venessa, are charged with Mr Thuo’s murder.
The witness was shown a photograph of beer bottles that the former MP was supposed to have been served, but she disputed the evidence, saying the photos did not depict the reality of what Mr Thuo had been served on the fateful day.
"GOOD FRIEND"
“I did not see a bottle of Heineken, Smirnoff and Tusker Malt served to mheshimiwa,” the witness said in cross examination by lawyer Gideon Solonka.
She said she heard Mr Thuo thank a woman called Venessa, who had offered him another beer bottle and left. The woman is one of the murder suspects.
“Thirty minutes later I heard bottles crash on the floor and saw Mr Thuo being carried out of the bar. I later learnt he had died.
The witness said the bar owner and the friends of Mr Thuo, whom he had been drinking with, wept as they had lost a “good friend”.
Mr Solonka also took a doctor who attended to Mr Thuo to task, wanting to know why the fluids he had sucked from his wind pipe at a hospital in Thika before he was transferred to Aga Khan were never taken for analysis.
Dr Tim Mbogoya, an eye specialist, who was introduced as a family doctor said the fluid was never secured as it was “an emergency situation”.
He also denied being Mr Thuo’s personal doctor but said he was only a family friend who had been called in to assist.
“I received a call from my brother-in-law and rushed to Thika hospital,” said the doctor.
The hearing continues Wednesday.
