The acquittal of four nurses accused of murdering a cancer patient at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) came about after the longest legal battle of almost ten years, wherein the High Court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case to the full extent of the law.
During the time of the event, the public demanded the death of Cosmas Mutunga Kenyatta, who was only 67 years old and had been on cancer treatment since being admitted to the hospital in November 2015 and was found severely wounded in his ward the next day. Mutunga’s death was a cause of national outrage at that time due to the extreme violence of his injuries and the questions raised about hospital security.
During the initial investigation, the investigators gathered witness accounts, blood evidence, and other forensic material, and the prosecution brought 18 witnesses in the trial. Still, the High Court ruled that the evidence was not sufficient to directly connect the defendants to the crime or to prove that there was an intent to kill.In announcing her decision, the judge stressed that the prosecution’s case was mostly based on circumstantial evidence and lacking in any clear proof that the nurses were the ones who did it.
She pointed out the main weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, such as the complete lack of eyewitness testimony and the absence of forensic links being made to the murder weapon, suggesting that it was impossible to maintain a conviction. Furthermore, the judge highlighted that the area where the incident took place was not tightly restricted; hence, an unknown person outside the nurses could have been the one responsible.
The ruling of the court marks the end of a long-running legal battle that has taken ten years to resolve, and the families of both the deceased and the accused have to wait a little longer for closure. The nurses were set free immediately after the ruling, which was a very huge turnaround for the defendants who…
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