August 19th, 2024 (Mention): The court has set a ruling date as to whether the defence has a case to answer for August 29th.
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August 6th, 2024 (Mention): The court has set another mention date for the filing of submissions to August 19th.
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May 6th, 2024 (Hearing): Today’s hearing proceeded at 14:00hrs with the last prosecution witness, Chief Inspector Charles Inoti, the designated investigating officer of this case. All seized ivory and other exhibits such as the cutting machine, packaging material, and weighing scales were again present before the court.
The state was represented by prosecutor Samson Ngetich. All accused were present with counsel, Mr Anyoka for the 2nd accused, Mr Dome for the 3rd,4th, and 5th accused and Mr. Makori for the 6th accused.
Examination in chief
Chief Inspector Inoti testified that on July 6th, 2017, he was requested to head this wildlife trophy investigation whereby the accused persons had been arrested by the Special Crimes Prevention Unit on June 27th, in the Utawala area of Nairobi. He took over the investigation and began looking into the matter. He also took the passport of one, Ahmed Mohamud Salah alias Ahmed Mahabub Gedi, . Inoti established that they had already been charged in court, and the exhibits (ivory) had been handed over to KWS.
His investigation began with the house where the ivory was discovered that was found to be the residence of the 1st accused, Julius Adika, a fact supported by a rental agreement and testimony from the landlord, Mr. Joseph Maina. Inoti contacted the landlord of the house/crime scene, and recorded statements and obtained the rental agreement between him and the 1st accused person, Adika, dated 4th of November 2014 and a bank statement showing how the rent was being paid by the deceased accused.
CI Inoti presented to the court scene of crime pictures taken on two different dates, the latter being April 30th, 2019 at the request of the court. He also presented a national museum report. He recounted that he requested that digital forensics be conducted on the accused persons’ phones, where exhibits 24 (Call data), and 24b (mpesa), were recovered. He also requested data analysis of phone data, which was presented as exhibit 19. The analysis revealed communication links between several of the accused individuals. For instance, the 3rd accused was found to be in contact with both the 2nd and 7th accused, the latter having later absconded. Additionally, the 6th accused was in communication with the 1st accused, who is now deceased. He also presented the previously mentioned exhibits including a power cutting tool, generator, cartons, 64 pieces of ivory, and a passport for Ahmed Mohamud Salah.
Cross-examination
Mr Anyoka for A#2 – Abdinur Ibrahim Ali
Defence Counsel (D/C 1):These exhibits were found in house no. C1 belonging to Joseph Maina.
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 1: This evidence is confirmed by the rental agreement.
CI Inoti: yes
D/C 1: The name of the Landlord is Joseph. Show where it is indicated in the agreement that Joseph is the landlord.
CI Inoti: The landlord’s name is not in the agreement; only his signature is required.
D/C 1: What is the name of the tenant in the agreement?
CI Inoti: The name of the tenant in the agreement is recorded as Julius only.
D/C 1: How can you tell who this Julius is, considering I am also called Julius? (There is no other data in the agreement to clearly show which Julius it is referring to)
CI Inoti: From the agreement, we cannot conclusively identify the tenant or the landlord, but he obtained bank account transactions record for Julius’s rent payment, which confirmed indeed the 1st accused was the tenant.
D/C 1: From the Safaricom data, where does the data show a connection between Abdinur Ibrahim (2nd accused) and the others? Before that can you tell us, you requested data from when to when?
CI Inoti: From January 2017 to 27th June 2017.
D/C 1: Which Mpesa transaction connects the second accused to the others?
CI Inoti: He transacted with Wesley Adweny on 25th June 2017 around 1000 at 14:02 hours, he received 1 thousand Kenya shillings from the 3rd accused, Wesley.
D/C 1:How were you able to distinguish which transactions related to ivory and whether according to the phone data, the transaction between his client and the 3rd accused was the only transaction conducted within that period.
CI Inoti: I was only concerned with transactions between the accused persons.
The 2nd accused was in active communication with Weasly and the absconded accused.
D/C 1: From your data can you tell the location of the accused persons? CI Inoti: The location data is general in nature.
D/C 1: From the location data, can you tell if the 2nd accused has had any interactions with the scene of crime?
CI Inoti: No, it is not indicated.
D/C 1: From that communication, how can you distinguish ivory-related communication from other types of communication?
CI Inoti: There is no way to distinguish
D/C 1: Where was the second accused arrested?
CI Inoti: At Embakasi East, not at the scene of the crime
Cross-examination
Mr. Dome for A#3, A#4, A#5 – Wesley Adweya, Hillary Karani, Rawling Innocent,
D/C 2: Were you the one who arrested them?
CI Inoti: No
D/C 2: Did you go to the scene of crime?
CI Inoti: Yes, a month after the arrest.
D/C 2: You were not present during the arrest?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 2: So, you are operating on the information handed down to you?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 2: You are not an expert in communication?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 2: So, the communication report is also information given to you?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 2: Out of the 398 calls from your digital forensics, they only called each other once.
CI Inoti: I was only interested in the connection between them
D/C 2: What shows the owner of the house?
CI Inoti: There are bank transactions and his name in the rental agreement
D/C 2: There were some pictures taken in 2019, 2 years after the case. Why?
CI Inoti: The court ordered for them
D/C 3: Looking at the charge sheet, what is the date of arrest?
CI Inoti: 27th June 2017.
D/C 3: When were they taken to court
CI Inoti: On 28th June 2017.
D/C 3: When did you take over the case?
CI Inoti: 6th July 2017
D/C 3: Can you confirm that no investigation had been done when you took over?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 3: Did you learn what the 6th accused does for a living, especially the day he was arrested?
CI Inoti: Yes, transportation.
D/C 3: Do you know Hassan Maroa?
CI Inoti: Yes.
D/C 3: Was he among the team that did the arrest?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 3: Have you had a chance to look at his statement? What motor vehicle was he talking about KCJ042T, a white Isuzu Dmax
D/C 3: In your investigations was the 6th accused walking into the compound to pick up a vehicle, a pick-up truck Isuzu D-Max which was found in the compound of the scene of crime, and which he was employed by one Raphael Mugenge to drive. Raphael was a prosecution witness. Where was my client arrested?
CI Inoti:While he was entering the scene of crime.
D/C 3: Who was in the compound during the arrest?
CI Inoti: The deceased
D/C 3: Are you aware that PW2 is the 6th accused employer?
CI Inoti: Yes.
D/C 3: And he is the one who instructed him to park the car in the compound?
CI Inoti: No
D/C 3: When did you record your statement?
CI Inoti: 12th Sep 2017.
D/C 3: In the statement, did you address a motor vehicle?
CI Inoti: Yes, black Toyota, which was preparing to load the exhibits
D/C 3: Can you confirm that is a different vehicle?
CI Inoti: Yes
D/C 3: Was the Toyota Dmax inside the compound on the date of arrest?
CI Inoti: It was parked in the compound
D/C 3: Has the 6th accused ever communicated with any of the other accused persons?
CI Inoti: Yes, he has talked to the deceased.
D/C 3: Has he transacted any amount with the other accused?
CI Inoti: No.
The afternoon’s proceedings finished with a last question from Mr. Ngetich as to whether the bank statement of Adika, provided and presented in court, as to who was paying who? CI Inoti relpied that Adika, (A#1) was paying Joseph Mania for rental purposes and this was indicated through frequent deposits.
The court has set a date of 6th August 2024 for filing of submissions. Defence counsel have requested a typed proceedings.
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April 3rd, 2024 (Hearing): All relevant persons were present in court except for one, the last remaining prosecution witness, Chief Inspector Inoti. The court was advised that IO, who has since been transferred to Kiambu, was injured as he was pursuing an incident in Juja hence his absence today. The matter was adjourned to 6th May 2024 at 2:00 P.M
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March 5th, 2024 (Hearing): Today’s hearing of the final prosecution witness did not take place. The prosecutor advised the court that Chief Inspector Inoti was indisposed. The hearing has been adjourned to April 3rd, 2024.
by E. Gutu
Court 2 at Kibera Law Courts was busy today as the hearing for Case 1649/17 resumed after several adjournments. Court began at 9.30am with Hon. S.O Temu presiding. The file for this case was set aside, after the court went on a break, scheduling the hearing to begin at 11am. However, the hearing did not begin until 12.15pm when Hon. Temu was back on the bench.
The much-anticipated testimonies of two remaining crucial witnesses were expected today – a Safaricom liaison officer and the Investigating Officer, Chief Inspector Charles Inoti. However only the Safaricom liaison officer, Daniel Hamisi, was present to testify with CI Inoti unavailable.
All five accused persons stood in the dock alongside their respective counsels. Mr. Makori represented the sixth accused, while Mr. Dome represented the third, fourth, and fifth accused individuals. The second accused, Abdinoor Ibrahim Ali, had legal representation from Mr. Anyoka.
In his testimony, Daniel Hamisi detailed how, on July 3, 2017, he received instructions from the then KWS Chief Inspector Inoti to gather information on seven Safaricom accounts. His task constituted generating Mpesa statements and call logs from January to July for these accounts, with the aim of determining all the transactions during this period and locations of the account owners during specified transactions.
Hamisi presented a detailed report encompassing transactions over a seven-month period for each of the seven accounts. This detailed report was submitted to the court as evidence, shedding light on the financial activities of the accused during the specified time frame.
During cross-examination, Mr. Anyoka grilled the witness on the specific locations of his client, Abdinoor Ibrahim Ali, preceding the arrest time. The report did have gaps but is was ascertained that Ibrahim Ali was found to have been mostly in South C, as well as in the Karen and Embakasi areas, the day prior to his arrest. Ibrahim Ali was also found to be linked with accused #3, Wesley Adweya, through a few Mpesa transactions but the amounts were minor, KES 1000 and KES 5000.
On the other hand, Mr. Makori attempted to distance his client, Ronson Ogondi Njue, from the c0o-accused, emphasizing the lack of information connecting his client to the . There were no mpesa transactions between Njue and the others.
Consequently, the magistrate adjourned the proceedings to March 5, 2024, when CI Inoti is expected to give his testimony.
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November 13th, 2023 (Hearing): This time it was fate that intervened to delay this case yet another three months. There was no court today anywhere in the country as the government gazetted the day as a public holiday approximately one week before. The court has adjourned the matter to February 5th for a hearing.