'Mungiki' Murder Trial Resumes

The hearing of a case in which former Nakuru Town MP David Manyara and 13 others - said to be members of the banned Mungiki sect - are charged with the murder of 10 people will resume this morning.

Mr Manyara's co-accused are are suspected Mungiki sect members. They are alleged to have committed the crime in Nakuru's Flamingo and Lake View estates on January 5, 2003.

The hearing was adjourned last November by the High Court pending the Court of Appeal's interpretation of the Evidence Act.

The Attorney-General, through a state counsel Evans Onderi, made the application after the presiding Judge Mr Justice Muga Apondi ruled out the use of confessions made at a police station as evidence in the case.

Mr Onderi said that after Parliament outlawed the use of confessions as evidence, uncertainties had arisen on interpretation of the repealed sections.

The sections of the Act that were amended include 28, 30 and 31. The amendments came into force last July.

Mr Onderi said that all along, the prosecution secured convictions through confessions.

He had lined up several police officers who obtained the confessions to testify before the hearing was adjourned.

He said that the trial basically, but not exclusively, rested on confessions that the accused persons had made to the police.

Mr Onderi had submitted that the amendment had not substantially affected the admission of such evidence and said that the AG wanted the Court of Appeal to interpret the matter.

Mr Manyara is represented by lawyer Karanja Mbugua.

While adjourning the case, Mr. Justice Apondi regretted that the Criminal Procedure Code was silent on whether or not the state should appeal against rulings made in the middle of proceedings.

He had said that he would however not block the prosecution from accessing the highest court.