Four Kenyan policemen have gone on trial in Mombasa on Tuesday accused of killing Alexander Monson, son of a British aristocrat who died in police custody in 2012.
Mr. Monson was found dead in his cell after being arrested for what the police said was smoking cannabis during a night out in Diani, near Mombasa on Kenya’s coast.
Two reports by government pathologists conclude that Alexander Monson had died after suffering a traumatic blow to the head. An inquest found there had been attempts to cover up the incident, and threats against witnesses.
The police have said Monson died of an overdose, but his mother Hilary Monson told the court that her son had not been a drug addict at the time of his death.
Meanwhile Hussein Khalid, director of local rights group Haki Africa, said he was concerned that it had taken so long to bring the case to trial, but added that it’s a good example for the country that finally people who were one way or another involved in the death of an innocent person while in police custody are now standing trial.
