Kenya: Safaricom entangled in lawyer’s killers phone data row

Safaricomis unwilling to share phone data that may help convict the killers of human rights lawyer Willie Kimani, his client and their driver, a trial court was told Wednesday.

Lawyers accuse the telco of suppressing potential evidence and want it compelled “to change its stance from a passive spectator to an active player in assisting with the investigations.”

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Wednesday said call and message data in Safaricom’s custody “should show the planning and execution” of the murders.

Safaricom through its lawyer Stephen Kiptinness invoked sections of the law and consumer protection regulations which prohibit it from divulging such information to third parties.

Mr Kiptinness told the court that Safaricom risked having its licence revoked if the lawyers have their way.

The National Police Service has long been accused of condoning extrajudicial killings by its officers and the lawyers filed a civil case to hold the top brass responsible and have the telco compelled to release the information to enable speedy investigation and prosecution of the case.

The bodies of Mr Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were found last week. The three disappeared after a court hearing on June 23 at Mavoko Law Courts.

Four officers were arrested in connection with the deaths and they are said to have tortured and killed the victims, stashed their bodies in gunny bags and dumped them in Ol Donyo Sabuk River, Machakos County.

“There must have been some flow of information and the respondent  (Safaricom) holds this evidence,” said LSK Nairobi branch chairman Charles Kanjama.

Mr Kanjama and Mr Kirimi Guantai, also representing LSK, told Justice Luka Kimaru that the company had “deliberately omitted” data transcripts in a schedule they had requested for certain subscribers between May and June.

“We notice that some information was not supplied including content that was very important to these proceedings, which renders it incapable of analysis” Mr Guantai submitted.

The LSK had requested Safaricom to provide details of specific SIM card numbers, specifically the names of the subscribers, but the lawyers said a printout given did not include the names of owners as they had requested.

“We had also requested for message logs of the numbers provided in the schedule, but they are telling us that they do not keep a store of message logs,” the lawyer said.

They said they were reading mischief in Safaricom’s response to their request “as the law provides that message logs be stored for a period of five years.”