Tecra Muigai, the beloved daughter of Nakuru senator Tabitha Karanja passed away in 2020, leaving her loved ones heartbroken and seeking justice.
They blamed her ex-boyfriend, Omar Lali, whose tale of finding his partner at the bottom of a staircase had holes in it, and raised more questions than answers.
Now, a court has found that he has a case to answer to, and is criminally liable for Tecra’s death.
“It is my finding that Omar Lali is criminally culpable for the murder of Tecra. Therefore, this court orders the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to recommend charges under Article 157 of the constitution,” Senior Principal Magistrate Zainab Abdul said.
The magistrate, while determining Lali was responsible for her death said claims of Tecra falling from the stairs could not have caused such severe brain damage as evidenced in the post-mortem reports.
Lali was first charged with murder at the Lamu Law Courts in May 2020 soon after Tecra fatally fell under unclear circumstances. The charges were later dropped, and the DPP applied for an open inquest.
“We interrogated Omar at the scene with the aim of knowing what happened. He told us that on the evening of April 22, 2020, after taking supper, they embarked on drinking and that in the middle of the night, in his word, he chewed blackout and slept leaving Tecra at the table only for him to be woken up by a thunder-like fall and a scream at the stairs,” Corporal Fredrick Odemba, one of the investigating officers in the inquest told the press last year, noting that there were inconsistencies in Lali’s story.
The Star reports: “Tecra’s mother who was a witness in the case testified saying she suspected Omar Lali could have had a hand in her daughter’s death because she might have refused to continue financing him. She said it was Lali’s greed that caused her daughter’s death.”
