Only four junior police officers will face criminal charges in the passing away of Baby Pendo and 39 others in the 2017 opposition protests in Kisumu.
This is despite 12 police officers, including senior police commanders, having been implicated in the matter.
While making the decision on Monday, May 5, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) cited a lack of evidence as the reason why charges were dropped on the other eight.
Amnesty International Kenya, which was in court for the hearing, revealed that the planned plea-taking is still ongoing for the four junior police officers.
"After nearly five years in court and several deferrals and delays, the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided to charge only four junior police officers and not the full eleven, including senior police commanders, in the Baby Pendo case," Amnesty wrote.
"Meanwhile, plea taking is currently underway for four junior officers facing crimes against humanity charges."
The heart-wrenching case of Baby Pendo has gripped the nation since her untimely passing, which was marred by the delay in the resolution of her case in court.
The DPP's decision comes months after the Court of Appeal on March 21 ruled that the 12 officers should face the 47 charges of crimes against humanity during the protests.
“In our ruling, we have said enough to show that despite being premised on an arguable appeal, the applications for stay of execution (taking plea) cannot succeed,” the court ruled.
“The applications are bound for dismissal, which we hereby do. We also reaffirm our dismissal of an application by the National Police Service to be made a party to the case,” they further added.
Although this is a major update in the case, the 11th suspect, a retired senior police officer, has yet to be arrested, according to a report by Chief Inspector Peter Kinani.
“My lady, efforts to visit his rural area, which is in Wajir County, and his other houses did not have any trace of human movement,” Chief Inspector Kinani told the court.
