A man has appeared in court in Kenya charged in connection with the kidnapping of a British tourist and the murder of her husband.
Ali Babitu Kololo (25) faced charges of kidnapping and robbery with violence after 58-year-old David Tebbutt was shot dead and his wife Judith abducted from a remote holiday resort close to the Kenyan border with Somalia.
Kololo is said to have worked at the Kiwayi Safari Village where the couple were staying. He has claimed he was forced to co-operate with the gang at gunpoint and had voluntarily gone to the police the next day to report the crime.
The Tebbutts, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, had arrived at the resort after visiting the Masai Mara game reserve and were the only guests. The attack took place in the early hours of Sunday, September 11.
A team of police officers has travelled from the UK to help local authorities in Kenya with their investigations.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said a team has been deployed to the area from the High Commission in Nairobi and called for those involved in the kidnapping to “show compassion”.
A second man, Issa Sheck Saadi, is expected to appear in the same court as Kololo. According to latest reports, Mrs Tebbutt is being held near Haredhere, a pirate base nearly 200 miles along the coast from the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Mrs Tebbutt (56) a social worker, is reported to be refusing food and defying her captors who are continually moving her to different locations.