The search for Stephen Mbaraka Karanja's body at Eldoret cemetery in 1987.
Mbaraka who was a suspected member of Mwakenya, a clandestine Marxist group opposed to Moi’s government, had set off from his home in Kiambu district on April 6, 1987.
But unknown to him, one officer from the Special Branch had been entrusted with tracking him down.
Two days later, his wife Naomi, recieved information that her husband had been picked up by the police at a bus stop in Nairobi.
As a result, she claimed habeas corpus, hoping that the police would produce her husband. The police, however, could not produce Mr Mbaraka because he was dead.
In an affidavit to the Court the Director of CID Noah Arap Too , claimed Mbaraka had been arrested on suspicion of robbery and taken to a forest near Eldoret, where he was alleged to have hidden a gun.
When he tried to run away, the police shot him in the back of the head and buried him in Eldoret cemetery.
Justice Derek Schofield, who to date is still well known for his strong support of human rights and the independence of the judiciary , gave the police 21 days to produce the body.
But after exhuming over 20 decomposing bodies in Eldoret cemetery, they had still failed to find Mbaraka's . The exercise was so gruesome that one senior police officer leading the operation became visibly enraged and traumatised.
But Justice Schofield refused to relent until Mbaraka's body was found . He instructed the police to continue exhuming the bodies the following day and report back to the court the following week.
The case was politically sensitive because charges of police brutality rarely came to court, especially when an official as highly placed as the head of CID was implicated.
Because of the condemnation and the embarrassment the government was receiving, Chief Justice Cecil Miller asked Justice Schofield to disqualify himself from the case.
Rather than being an accomplice in the perpetration of human rights abuses by the state, Justice Schofield decided to resign.
The following day Cecil Miller, announced that Justice Schofield would not be allowed to con tinue hearing the case because of some remarks he had made in court when the case was first mentioned.
Justice Miller, however, refused to explain which remarks he objected to, and did not allow the lawyer acting for Mr Mharaka's family. Mr Obbidiah Ngwiri, to register a protest.
Justice Derek Schofield, was one of 10 British judges who were working under contract to the Kenyan Government as part of the British aid programme. He became Chief Justice of Gibraltar after leaving Kenya.
As for Mbaraka, it later turned out, he had been killed by the police and his body burnt to ashes.
Mbaraka who was a suspected member of Mwakenya, a clandestine Marxist group opposed to Moi’s government, had set off from his home in Kiambu district on April 6, 1987.
But unknown to him, one officer from the Special Branch had been entrusted with tracking him down.
Two days later, his wife Naomi, recieved information that her husband had been picked up by the police at a bus stop in Nairobi.
As a result, she claimed habeas corpus, hoping that the police would produce her husband. The police, however, could not produce Mr Mbaraka because he was dead.
In an affidavit to the Court the Director of CID Noah Arap Too , claimed Mbaraka had been arrested on suspicion of robbery and taken to a forest near Eldoret, where he was alleged to have hidden a gun.
When he tried to run away, the police shot him in the back of the head and buried him in Eldoret cemetery.
Justice Derek Schofield, who to date is still well known for his strong support of human rights and the independence of the judiciary , gave the police 21 days to produce the body.
But after exhuming over 20 decomposing bodies in Eldoret cemetery, they had still failed to find Mbaraka's . The exercise was so gruesome that one senior police officer leading the operation became visibly enraged and traumatised.
But Justice Schofield refused to relent until Mbaraka's body was found . He instructed the police to continue exhuming the bodies the following day and report back to the court the following week.
The case was politically sensitive because charges of police brutality rarely came to court, especially when an official as highly placed as the head of CID was implicated.
Because of the condemnation and the embarrassment the government was receiving, Chief Justice Cecil Miller asked Justice Schofield to disqualify himself from the case.
Rather than being an accomplice in the perpetration of human rights abuses by the state, Justice Schofield decided to resign.
The following day Cecil Miller, announced that Justice Schofield would not be allowed to con tinue hearing the case because of some remarks he had made in court when the case was first mentioned.
Justice Miller, however, refused to explain which remarks he objected to, and did not allow the lawyer acting for Mr Mharaka's family. Mr Obbidiah Ngwiri, to register a protest.
Justice Derek Schofield, was one of 10 British judges who were working under contract to the Kenyan Government as part of the British aid programme. He became Chief Justice of Gibraltar after leaving Kenya.
As for Mbaraka, it later turned out, he had been killed by the police and his body burnt to ashes.