The Kisumu Government Chemist Richard Kimutai has been put under pressure by the High Court over delays with regard to analysis of defilement cases filed in 2017.
The department has been accused of stalling over seven cases that require DNA analysis.
The complaint was raised by judge David Majanja who pointed out that the Chemist had delayed analysis reports that were under review since July last year hence keeping suspects in custody regarding the case, behind bars for longer than the law requires.
[caption caption="The office of the Government Chemist"]
[/caption]
In his defense, Mr Kimutai explained that his reasons for delaying the reports were that the office was handling too many examinations from both Rift Valley and Nyanza regions.
“To conduct one sample investigation, we require a minimum of two weeks but other cases took even a month to be concluded,” said Kimutai.
Some of the cases that have needed DNA tests include rape reports from the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
He also attributed the lack of certain necessary reagents that are used when carrying out the analysis as being a factor towards the delay.
Justice Majanja was, however, unconvinced about the second cause noting that a government facility could not ordinarily be expected to lack such reagents needed to conduct vital investigations.
It was brought to light by the judge that the Director of the facility had previously been summoned to court to explain the delay but has repeatedly snubbed the calls.
[caption caption="A DNA Test Sample"]
[/caption]
He, therefore, summoned him to appear the court on Wednesday to give a detailed report with regard to the entire issue.
