One female camel and regular visits to the chief

Camels trekking in Garbatura, Isiolo County.

Most magistrates and judges across the country have on separate occasions been treated to theatrics while handling some court cases.

From drunkards appearing in the dock with deadly hangovers to neighbours taking each other to court over ‘malicious damage’ of property such as sufurias and plastic cups, Kenyan courtrooms have on various occasions become theatres of the absurd.

Notably, in most of these occasions either the suspects or witnesses testifying in the cases are the sources of the court drama.

But on July 19, 2002, a rather interesting judgement in a murder case hit the headlines from the Nakuru High Court. Justice Anyara Emukule, had ordered an old man, who had been charged with murder, to pay a fine of one female camel to the family of the deceased.

The 89-year-old suspect Lerasss Lenchura was also ordered to visit his area chief once every two weeks for five years, as part of the penalty for killing 55-year-old Lotiyan Lekapana or in default serve a year in prison.

But the circumstances leading to the court case – dating back to February 12, 2011, when Lekapana was killed at a watering point in Samburu County – were equally interesting.

The court heard that Lekapana had arrived at the watering point near Lerata trading centre in Samburu East district, where he found villagers queuing for the scarce commodity.

Lekapana, asked to be allowed to fetch water first, and all those in the line obliged, except Lenchura, a World War II veteran, who was next on the queue.

Then a quarrel ensued between the two and degenerated into a fight that would end in the death of Lekapana. Lenchura was arrested and subsequently charged with murder before the Nakuru High Court.

But the court case emanating from what would appear to have been “a small fight in the bushes of Samburu” would lead to a landmark judgement on that July day in 2002 at the Nakuru High Court.

Lawyer Timothy Njogu, for the suspect, gave the court a vivid picture of how scarce water is in Samburu and how the struggle for the commodity had resulted in other deaths.

Njogu further told the court that even the late Lekapana; whose death had landed his client in the dock, was also armed with a rungu with which he attacked Lenchura, before the latter stabbed him with a knife.

“There was no intention on the part of the accused to kill the deceased. It is normal in that area to walk around armed at all times, even the deceased was armed with a rungu and used it against the accused,” noted Justice Emukule in his judgement.

The judge thus substituted the murder charges against Lenchura with a manslaughter charge but due to the suspect’s advanced age, the judge gave him the lenient sentence.