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A key witness who was set to testify in the trial of a female police constable accused of killing her estranged husband in cold blood was stood down by the Presiding Judge yesterday citing overload of work.

Sharon Jepchirchir, the house help of the accused person Lilian Biwott (pictured above) had been called in the dock to give her evidence-in-chief against her former employer before she was stood down by Justice Reuben Nyakundi.

“I will not proceed with the hearing of this murder case today because I have more than 50 rulings and judgements that I must deliver and therefore, the witness in the dock will be stood down until June 4, 2024,” ruled Justice Nyakundi.

She was among five prosecution witnesses who had been lined up by the prosecution to testify in the murder case.

Biwott, 32, is accused of shooting her husband Victor Kipchumba to death on the night of October 9, 2023 at their rented house at Kimumu estate on Eldoret-Iten highway, Uasin Gishu county. She was attached to the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit ( CIPU) in Uasin Gishu county where she served at the Kenya Bureau of Standards Eldoret branch. She denied the murder charge and is being held at the Eldoret GK women remand since her arrest last year.

Earlier in the morning, there was drama at the court when family members of the victim protested against the move by the key witness to meet with the suspect in the high court cells.

They complained that it was wrong for Jepchirchir to interact with the accused person in the cell and yet she was scheduled to testify against her in murder trial slated for June 4.

“We want the police officers to eject her from the cell or we protest outside court because we know the suspect wants to coach her on what she would say in her testimony,” complained the victim’s elder brother who declined to be named.

One of the police officers was forced to rush to the cell and remove the suspect to save the situation from getting out of hand before he directed her to go home until the matter came up for further hearing.