Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) has written to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) asking them to provide information about the investigation of the January 23, 2023, deadly blast incident at a mining shaft in Nandi county.
KHRC in a statement dated February 28, 2023, wants to find out the position of DCI and DPP in the case and why it has taken too long to charge suspects.
Three people who were employees of Karebe Gold Mining were killed in the incident while six others suffered severe injuries.
The police arrested 10 suspects who were detained at Songhor police station.
The suspects were later arraigned before the court at Kapsabet where the court granted the investigation officer 14 days to hold the suspects in custody pending further investigation.
Due to the nature and magnitude of the investigation, the investigations were taken up by investigators from DCI Headquarters who completed the investigation, and recommendations of a charge of murder against the suspects were made.
Programme Associate Human Rights Monitoring and Rapid Response Brian Olang in the statement said a duplicate file was forwarded to the ODP Nairobi for perusal, directions, and further actions in court.
The matter was mentioned on February 22, 2023, as the state made an application to hold suspects for ten more days so that DPP could peruse the file and recommend relevant charges.
However, the court dismissed the application on February 24, releasing the suspects on Sh1000, 000 cash bail each.
Following the events, KHRC wrote to DCI at the same time seeking the attention of DPP Noordin Haji on behalf of the members of the family of the victims to seek what was the actual position of the DCI file that the investigation was made and the recommendation of a charge of murder made against the suspect.
Further, the human rights body also wanted to find out the current position of the file forwarded to ODPP and why it is taking too long to charge.
KHRC threatened to explore other options if the information sought was not given within three days.
There are claims of interference from above which have delayed the probe.