INTERVIEW-UK hotelier in Kenya to revive daughter's murder case
05 Dec 2006 17:51:38 GMT Source: Reuters
(Refiles to amend description of victim) By Munene Kilongi NAIROBI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A pile of excrement found in a Kenyan park where a British woman was murdered 18 years ago could be key to finding her killer, her father said on Tuesday during a visit to the east African nation to prod authorities. British hotelier John Ward, whose daughter Julie went missing while photographing migrating wildebeests in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Park, said he was disappointed at the slow pace with which the government was pursuing her killers. Ward said in an interview with Reuters he had new leads and more witnesses willing to testify in the case but was waiting on the Kenyan government to take action. He specifically cited a DNA sample preserved from a pile of excrement at the site of the remains in south-west Kenya, which at the time of the murder could not be analysed. "These days you can get DNA out of excrement," Ward said. "The interesting part about it is that we know it is not Julie's. Now if that excrement turns out to belong to any of our suspects who claim that they never went to that place, then obviously it's quite exciting news." Ward has made more than 100 trips and spent more than 1 million pounds ($1.98 million) to try to conclude the investigation into the 1988 murder of his daughter, whose only remains found were her jaw and a leg. She was 28 years old. Two trials and two commissions of inquiry have been held since Ward's death despite officials initially claiming she had been killed by wild animals. Three people have been taken to court and all have been acquitted, one without even being tried. Ward said British police had helped him gather more evidence, including semen and blood samples. "The British police have identified 46 new lines of inquiry in this case, and there are also two new witnesses," he said. The two witnesses, an American and a Frenchman whose identities remain secret, are ready to testify if another trial can be brought through, he said. PACE SLOWS When Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's ruling coalition came to power in 2002, the case was one of many carry-overs from the former government it vowed to solve. But Ward said that despite initial cooperation, government officials went cold after former Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi changed ministries. "What was going very smoothly at the time of Kiraitu Murungi has now gone very wrong with Martha Karua. We don't know why and I'm over here to find out or to rejuvenate the case," Ward said, referring to the current justice minister. "I did expect that there would be ministerial continuity and that where one minister left one would be able to pick up." Karua was not immediately available for comment.
