A firearm examiner has told a Nairobi court that he was unable to make a conclusive finding on whether a bullet that hit Felix Orindi alias DJ Evolve was fired by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino.
Inspector Reuben Kiptum Bett, a firearm examiner based at DCI Headquarters told Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi that the bullet he received to examine had foreign markings on it making. This markings, he said, made it difficult to conclude whether it was fired from the the MP’s gun
“On the surface of the bullet, there were foreign makings indicating the bullet had passed through a hard surface. It could have passed through a concrete wall which is known to give bullets foreign markings,” the examiner testified.
The officer further told the court that there are many other types of firearms that can fire the type of bullet (9mm) he was examining such as a Ceska pistol. Babu Owino’s firearm was a Steyr Mannlicher pistol which also uses a 9mm bullet.
According to the examiner, he received the exhibits among them a gun, a spent cartridge, 9 bullets, 85 bullets and the fired bullet on 17th and 21st January 2020.
He was to determine whether the gun and the bullets and spent cartridge were compatible.
Bett said that in the course of his examination, he fired several bullets from the bunch he had in order to determine whether they were compatible.
The court heard that even though the markings on bullets differ from one gun to another, they will appear different if the bullet hit a hard surface such as a concrete wall.
During cross-examination by Babu’s lawyer Dan Okatch, the examiner said that he never visited the scene of crime nor did he know whether the source of the exhibits.
During re-examination by the prosecution, the witness said that it is possible to make a conclusion on an exhibit without visiting the scene of crime.
However, he added that the same would depend with the exhibit you are handling.
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