Every Hill a Burial Place by Peter H. Reid

Author:Peter H. Reid
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

21

Trial Day Two

Saturday, August 27, 1966

Kinsey Had Blood Stains on Clothes, Says Witness.

—Nairobi Sunday News

At the opening of the session on Saturday, August 27, the judge informed counsel that the court might call its own expert witnesses if deemed necessary. He also asked the prosecution and defense to agree on medical sources that the judge and the assessors could consult.1

CID inspector Martin Kifunta was the first witness to be sworn in that morning. (Although this chapter covers the same testimony as provided in chapter 13, there are important differences, especially in the prosecution’s examination, which did not take place at the preliminary inquiry.) The prosecuting attorney asked Kifunta to describe the events on the day Peppy Kinsey died. Kifunta testified that an African had come to the police station and told him a woman was dead on Maswa Hill, so he went there, and when he arrived, he found about one hundred people surrounding the defendant. When Kifunta asked him about his clothes, Kinsey said that his wife had fallen from a rock and that his clothes became bloodstained when he tried to help her. After this explanation, Kinsey led Kifunta to the body, which Kifunta found covered with a green towel and near a number of objects: a bottle, a book, a bottle opener, some cigars, and a headband. These items were produced in the courtroom, marked as exhibits, and entered into evidence. The book found was Little Big Man, and it was bloodstained, with the pages stuck together. Kifunta went on to testify that he and several policemen searched the area, where they found pieces of a beer bottle and a small pool of blood near where Kinsey said his wife had fallen. They also found a metal pipe with blood and what looked like some tufts of hair on it. Kinsey told him that the pipe was part of some camera equipment he was assembling, but that he did not know how it had become bloodstained.

Kifunta said that he had taken the defendant back to Maswa and searched his house. After the search, he took Kinsey’s bloodstained clothes and left him with the local priest, Father Bob Lefebvre, with whom Kinsey spent the night. Kifunta told him to report to the police station in the morning, where Kinsey showed up with Father Bob at 8:00 a.m., at which time Kifunta arrested him and told him he believed Kinsey had murdered his wife.

To appreciate the nature of the prosecution’s development of its case, it is useful to provide a portion of the examination of Inspector Kifunta. A transcript of his direct examination by the prosecution includes the following questions and answers:2

Q: How long have you been an [sic] Maswa Police Station as an A. S. P. (Assistant Superintendent of Police)?

A: Since December 1964.

Q: How long have you known the deceased?

A: Since 1965 as a teacher in Binza School in Maswa.

Q: Did you see the accused on March 27th, 1966?

A: Yes.

Q: Under what circumstances did you see the accused?

A: I saw the accused on a hill where I was summoned, where a fight had taken place.

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