The High Court has heard that the Kianjokoma brothers were allegedly heard urging each other to escape moments before their deaths, even as a former police boss identified officers who were at the scene where the two bodies were found.

Testifying before Justice Margaret Muigai at the Milimani Law Courts, Chief Inspector Peter Terer said the brothers, Benson Njiru and Emmanuel Mutura, encouraged each other to jump from a moving police vehicle, allegedly shouting “tujiokoe” as the vehicle sped along.

Mr Terer, a former Deputy Officer Commanding Station (OCS) at Manyatta Police Station in Embu County, told the court that this account was given to him by two suspects who had been arrested alongside the brothers and were seated next to them inside the police vehicle on the night of August 1–2, 2021.

“The two brothers told each other ‘tujiokoe’ as the vehicle was moving. They jumped out one after the other,” Terer testified.

He said the brothers were among 10 people arrested for allegedly violating Covid-19 curfew regulations. Eight of the suspects were later detained and charged at the Embu Law Courts, while another was charged separately for operating a bar outside permitted hours.

Terer told the court that he was informed of the brothers’ deaths at about 12.45am on August 2, 2021, and instructed officers to preserve the scene as investigations began. He added that six officers who were on duty that night were later arrested and treated as suspects.

However, under cross-examination, Terer admitted that he did not witness the incident and relied entirely on information from the suspects.

“I did not see the incident happen,” he said, adding that heavy rainfall that night may have reduced visibility inside the police vehicle.

In a separate testimony, former Manyatta Police Station OCS Abdullahi Yaya told the court that he encountered five police officers at the scene shortly after the incident. He identified them as Corporal Mbuthia, Corporal Consolata, Jeffer Mwaniki, Police Constable (PC) Wanyama and PC Cherono.

Mr Yaya testified that he received a call from his deputy, Peter Ketel, informing him that officers on patrol had arrested 10 suspects but only eight were accounted for upon arrival at the station.

“I was informed that the officers had arrested 10 offenders, but when they reached the station, only eight were present. Two were missing,” Yaya told the court.

He said he immediately informed the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD), and together they proceeded towards Kiriai from Manyatta Police Station to trace where the two suspects had gone missing.

According to Yaya, he was informed of the incident at about 1:00 a.m. on August 1, 2021. Upon reaching the scene, he found two bodies lying on the road with visible head injuries.

The former OCS also produced the duty roster for that day, showing that the accused officers were on duty during the incident.

The trial has heard conflicting accounts, with a government pathologist earlier dismissing claims that the brothers died after jumping from a moving vehicle, instead concluding that they sustained fatal blunt force injuries inconsistent with such a fall.

The six police officers charged with the murders have denied the charges.