Judge orders inquest into Tecra Muigai death as Omar Lali murder charge dropped

By , K24 Digital
On Thu, 16 Jul, 2020 17:22 | < 1 min read
Omar Lali
Mr. Omar Lali when he appeared at the Garsen High Court on July 16, 2020. PHOTO | SOPHIE NJOKA
Mr. Omar Lali when he appeared at the Garsen High Court on July 16, 2020. PHOTO | SOPHIE NJOKA

The High Court in Garsen has dropped murder charges against Omari Lali, the ex-boyfriend to Keroche Breweries heiress, Tecra Muigai.

This after the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Hajji through state counsels Eddie Kadebe alongside Zakaria Kiongo applied for nolle prosecution (dismissal of charges )on grounds that there was no enough evidence to prefer murder charges against Lali.

High Court judge Roselyn Korir allowed the application and ordered the state to open a murder inquest at the Lamu Law Courts.

“Following the application from the prosecution, I hereby allow the application to have the murder charges dropped and an inquest unto the death of the deceased to begin at, a date set by both parties in the matter,” she said.

The move to drop the murder charges against Lali comes barely three days after the DPP, said there was enough evidence to prefer murder charges against Lali.

The state had indicated that toxicological evidence, postmortem reports, phone records including documentary exhibits and witness statements proved that Lali was behind the murder of Tecra.

“The decision to charge Omar with murder was taken after an exhaustive review of toxicological evidence, detailed postmortem reports, phone records, other documentary exhibits and witnesses’ statements,” he said.

According to a postmortem examination at Nairobi’s Lee Funeral Home on May 12, Tecra succumbed to head injuries after falling down the stairs.

Lamu Principal magistrate Allan Temba under miscellaneous criminal application had directed the prosecution to arraign Lali before the High Court in Garsen.

“The miscellaneous criminal application file is hereby closed. Let the homicide detectives present Omar Lali Omar before the High Court at Garsen within 24 hours to take the murder plea or if unable to present him within 24 hours he be admitted to police bond,” said Temba.