Court told Omar Lali didn’t report Tecra’s fall to police

Chief Inspector of police Evans Chea testifies at a Milimani court, Nairobi when the inquest into the death of Tecra Muigai resumed. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

A police officer told the inquest probing the death of Keroche heiress Tecra Muigai that her boyfriend, Omar Lali, failed to report the incident that lead to her death.
Chief Inspector Evans Cheya testified that the management of the tourist hotel where Tecra was staying with Lali also failed to report the incident but instead instructed one of its staff to clean up the blood on the spot where she is said to have fallen and lapsed into unconsciousness.
“I asked Lali if he made a report to police after his girlfriend sustained the injuries but he said he only tried to call a female police officer but he could not reach her and did not make any attempt to report the incident at the police station,” testified Cheya.
The officer, who heads the police tourism unit in Lamu County, said the managers of Jaha House in Shela, Lamu County where the two were staying knew of the incident but also did nothing about it.
He testified that by the time he was instructed by the officer in charge of investigations in Lamu to visit the scene, he found no traces of blood to prove the claims made by Lali that Tecra had fallen on the staircase and was bleeding from her right ear.
He said that he asked the hotel managers to provide a visitors’ book to help in the investigations but the management informed them they did not have a list of guests who had checked into the facility.
“The management did not have any report of the incident in their records and when I asked one of the workers why he had cleaned up Tecra’s apartment before police arrived, he said that the management had asked him to clean all the blood,” said Cheya.
Tecra is alleged to have fallen from the second-floor stairs of the apartment she was staying with Lali on April 23, 2020, before she was airlifted to a Nairobi Hospital where she died on May 2, 2020.
Lali had initially been arrested and taken to court to face murder charges but the Director of Public Prosecution withdrew the case and instead directed that an inquest be held to establish the cause of her death.
Cheya testified that he knew Lali even before the incident since he was useful in informing police about all tourism events in Lamu.
“I knew that he was dating Tecra and they never reported to me of any incident of disagreement during their relationship. Lali has been very useful to the police in Lamu and we have never had an incident with him,” said Cheya.
The officer told the court that on May 3, 2020, he was tasked to question and record a statement from Lali about the incident, which Lali denied any role in the death of Tecra.
He testified that on a fateful day, Lali told him that they had lunch with Tecra on the third floor of the apartment after which she started drinking wine, whisky and chewing miraa (khat).
“Lali told me that he fell asleep in the evening and was woken by a loud bang and realised that it was his girlfriend who had fallen. When he went to check on her, he discovered she was unconscious and bleeding from the ears,” said Cheya.
According to the officer, Lali tried to perform first aid by pumping Tecra’s lungs then called his brother for assistance and together they took her to Sheha Dispensary before she was transferred to King Fahad Hospital and then airlifted to Nairobi.
Cheya told trial magistrate Zainab Abdul that from the day of the fall to the time Tecra died, Lali behaved like he was very concerned about her wellbeing.
The inquest was adjourned to February 23 next year.