Ambassador’s murder case fails to take off, again

Nairobi, Kenya: The trial of a Venezuelan diplomat charged with the murder of their acting ambassador in Kenya has failed to proceed for the second time.

The court was informed that the hearing could not proceed because the State counsel prosecuting the matter was held up elsewhere.

The first time it failed to proceed before Justice Rosalyn Korir, the counsel for one of the accused stepped down.

Korir then directed the State to find a lawyer for Moses Kiprotich, a guard who worked at the embassy after his lawyer stepped aside. Yesterday, the judge set the hearing date of the murder trial for July 16.

Kiprotich’s lawyer, Evans Ondieki pulled out after he was appointed a minister at the Nairobi County government.

Ondieki told the court that he would not be able to continue to represent his client considering the responsibility he is tasked with at the county.

The diplomat, Dwight Sagaray and his co-accused Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed are charged that on the night of July 26 and 27 at the residence of the Venezuelan Embassy in Runda Estate, they murdered the ambassador Olga Fonseca. The envoy was found strangled to death at her official residence in Nairobi on July 27.

Three security guards who were also charged in connection with the murder were released on bail.

Denied bail

Eliud Kimutai, Bernard Owino and Kiprotich were released on Sh1 million bond with a similar surety and ordered to report to CID once in two weeks. The trio who are security guards with Securex were also charged with failing to use any reasonable means to stop the murder.

Sagaray, the first secretary to the slain ambassador and also a law student at the University of Nairobi, pleaded not guilty when he appeared before justice Florence Muchemi.

The State through Deputy Prosecution counsel Tabitha Ouya sought to have Sagaray denied bail until the second accused was apprehended and arraigned in court but the defense lawyer Stephen Liganya opposed the application.

“We are asking the court to have the suspect held in custody until the second accused is arrested. I am also seeking to have the suspect detained,” said Ouya.