Kenyan court to rule on murder of British national

By Mercy Juma

A Kenyan court is expected to give its verdict on whether four police officers are guilty of the murder of Alexander Monson, a British national, who was found dead almost 10 years ago while in police custody in the coastal town of Diani.

The police officers were put on trial earlier this year, after it was established that Mr Monson had died after being beaten up during detention and not from a drug overdose as police claimed initially.

Mr Monson, then 28, was the son of the 12th Baron Monson and heir to the family estate in Lincolnshire, and was living with his mother in Diani, Kenya when he died.

His dad, British aristocrat Lord Nicholas Monson, who arrived in Kenya over the weekend, will attend the court ruling.

Mr Monson was arrested for allegedly smoking cannabis and despite police saying he died of an overdose, toxicology reports showed that no drugs were found in his system at the time of his death.

A 2018 inquest in Kenya ruled that Mr Monson was beaten to death and that there had been a cover up attempt and threats against witnesses.

Kenya has a long history of police brutality and use of excessive force by officers during law enforcement. Human rights organisations have documented hundreds of killings over the years, majority of which have gone uninvestigated.

This article originally appeared in BBC News.

Photo: Courtesy