Another long read. Justice made in Kenya. [There are Kenyans who pretend that such incidences do not occur and are forever singing Kenya is the place to be!] Director of Public Prosecutions orders retrial of Bid Insurance boss. Exactly a year ago this month, 19-year old Yvonne Langat had the world at her feet. She had just joined Utalii College for a course in Front Office management and was starting to enjoy her stay there. It had been only two months, but it felt long enough. Yvonne had made some friends, and on that October night, she and her college mates had crossed to the other side of Thika Superhighway to buy bags of chips. On their walk to back, Yvonne and her three friends stopped at a designated Zebra crossing on the road and waited for their turn to cross. Vehicles on three lanes stopped for them to cross. As the three girls made their way, out of the blue, a Toyota Land Cruiser driving at breakneck speed zoomed past, flying over bumps and the Zebra crossing, mowing down Yvonne and two of her friends. The crazed driver did not stop even to check if anyone had survived his reckless, mindless charge. He only stopped when tourist police on patrol, with the help of boda boda operators, gave chase and caught up with him. The killer driver was Dilesh Somchand Bid, the managing director of Bid Insurance Company. “He flatly refused to take the students to the hospital, saying he did not want Africans in his car,” says Kioko Kaindi, Yvonne’s step father. They waited until the police called for an ambulance. Yvonne died a few hours later at a small hospital in Pangani where the three girls had been rushed. What followed was even more heart-breaking. After Bid’s inimitable destruction of human life, police were unwilling to bring the culprit to book. Two months went by without any progress on the case. As Kaindi explains, the officer assigned the case, a Constable Nyaga, provided a very intriguing explanation. “Around December last year, we went to Pangani Police Station to check on the status of the case,” Kaindi recalls. “The police officer there told us Bid was going for holiday and we should wait for him to return.” This a Government officer employed to uphold the rule of law confessing to a bereaved family that he had allowed a murder suspect, who should have been behind bars, to proceed on holiday before he could take action. A month later, in January this year, Constable Nyaga told Yvonne’s family that he could not prosecute the matter because he did not have any statements from eye-witnesses. The police, of course, were aware that two students had survived Bid’s slaughter, but had not bothered to follow it up. Kaindi did not tire, although he was making regular trips from Machakos. He went to Utalii College and sought the two accident survivors. They went to Pangani Police Station and recorded statements. Then the trail went cold. The next time Kaindi checked, he was told the file was missing. Yes, the lame excuse used by public servant in the past to subvert the cause of justice, is still in use. What Bid had done to compromise the investigation may not be clear, but the outcome was evident. The police at Pangani had no desire to prosecute the case. “At this point, I contacted senior police officers that I know through friends, who called the Pangani Police Station seeking an explanation,” Kaindi reveals. It’s at this point that Bid contacted Kaindi. He did not call to apologise and remonstrate for the callous murder of their daughter. He called to offer a bribe for them to drop the case. Kaindi, his wife Ruth and family lawyer Jennifer Kilonzo met Bid at a city restaurant. He offered them Sh1m to drop the matter. “I could not believe what was happening,” Kaindi says. “I told him I could not withdraw the case because it was a murder case, and therefore the State was the complainant. “I was very offended, I stood to leave and then he added that he would use less money than he was offering me to buy his freedom,” says Kaindi. To add salt to injury, Kaindi says Bid hurled racial epithets at him as well. Finally, on February 14, 2013, Bid was taken to court and charged with the murder of Yvonne Langat. He pleaded not guilty. But on a second hearing, on 23 July 2013, Bid changed his plea to guilty. And within 20 minutes, the resident magistrate Eddah Agode wrote and delivered her judgement. She ordered Bid to pay a fine of Sh100,000 for Yvonne’s murder or face a six month jail term. As for the two other students who were also injured in the accident, Bid was ordered to pay a fine of Shs 2,500 for each. Bid’s prophecy had come true. He had paid a fraction of what he had offered the Kaindis and walked to freedom. “It was unbelievable. I had paid the fares for doctors and students to be at the court. The two survivors of the accident had been summoned to testify but they were at the last minute denied the opportunity to, with the simple explanation that the accused had already pleaded guilty,” says Kaindi. Kaindi’s lawyer, in letters addressed to the Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko, argued that the law had been violated by giving Bid the option of paying a fine in a murder case. “From Section 46 of the Traffic Act of the Laws of Kenya, it is clear that there is no provision for the imposition of a fine or the insinuation of a fine,” wrote Jennifer Kilonzo, the family’s lawyer. “It is clear that the court proceeded on a frolic of its own and imposed a sentence that was not only illegal but unlawful from the very beginning.” From the Office of the Chief justice, the family lawyer got a response through the Judicial Service Desk which said, “In cases of this nature, advice the complainant to appeal.” The Director of Public Prosecutions acknowledged that there seemed to have been a miscarriage of justice and asked the court to review the ruling. On 16 September 2013, in a letter addressed to the Deputy Registrar, Criminal Division of the Milimani Law Courts, and copied to Kaindi’s family lawyer Kilonzo and DPP wrote: “We submit that the sentencing (of Bid) was unlawful and illegal as there is no provision for the imposition of a fine and therefore kindly request you to call for the proceedings from the trial court for the purposes of executing the powers of revision…” “We have written to the DPP and given him 14 days to file an application at the High Court,” says Jennifer. “If they will not have done so, we shall then proceed to institute a private case against Bid,” Kilonzo says. Meanwhile, Bid is still enjoying his freedom and driving on our roads, no doubt jeopardising other lives, when he should have been locked up a long time ago for a callous murder that he remains unremorseful about.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:32:07 +0000