Kajiado family calls for justice after kin allegedly killed by police

Relatives say the man was killed by a police officer in July 2019.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

A family in Kajiado is crying for justice after their patriarch was shot and killed during a land scuffle.

Mr Pingwa Ole Rosio was allegedly shot by a police officer attached to Ngong police station on July 26, 2019. The shooting happened on his own farm at Ntashart-Kimuka, Ngong in Kajiado County.

He succumbed to the injuries inflicted by the police the following day. Two years down the line, his family is yet to be served with justice.

The sons, Mark and Noah, claim that their father was shot by the police on their farm as they tried to stop a group of people who were demarcating their family land.

Mark says that they could not report the matter to the nearest Ngong police station as the police they suspect murdered their father, are from the police station.

They instead opted to have the matter investigated by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

“We could not report the incident at Ngong police station because it is the officers from the station who were involved. We cannot allow them to investigate themselves and expect a fair process. That is why we went to IPOA,” Mark, the eldest of the sons, says.

In a statement, IPOA chairperson Anne Makori confirmed the fatal shooting, noting that the authority is investigating the matter.

“Mr Pingwa Ole Rosio was shot, allegedly by a police officer and succumbed to the injuries,” says Ms Makori in a statement to  the Nation.

“Preliminary investigations established that the matter falls under IPOA functions, which includes to investigate any complaints related to disciplinary or criminal offences committed by any member of the (Police) service,” she added.

Ms Makori noted that witness statements were recorded and other forms of evidence gathered in the course of the investigation which has since been completed.

“The investigation file is currently under review by our legal experts before it is forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) with appropriate recommendations, as dictated by law,” says the IPOA chairperson.

As to whether the Ole Rosio family will get justice, Ms Makori assured that IPOA remains committed to “being independent, impartial and fair.”

Mark says that troubles in his family started in 2016 when a Dr Chege faked subdivision of their land to claim compensation from the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco), which was in the process of acquiring land for the way leave corridor.

According to Mark, Dr Chege processed suspicious titles- LR No. Kajiado/Ntashart 278 and LR No. Kajiado/Ntashart 279 that he presented to Ketraco and got paid Sh16 million for the compensation.  

Efforts to get a comment from Ketraco Managing Director Fernandes Barasa over whether due diligence was done on the owners of the land it was acquiring before committing public funds, failed as he did not respond to our inquiries.

The sons claim that despite delayed justice, the provincial administration in Kajiado West continues to get away with everything including intimidating the residents and local leaders including chiefs whenever they speak on the matter. 

They also want Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai to transfer and institute investigations on the conduct of the area Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers, whom they accused of taking sides, thereby compounding their woes. 

Matters came to a head after having gotten away with the Ketraco ‘compensation’, Dr Chege, in another attempt, tried to grab Ole Rosio’s land for the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) compensation.

Mark told the Nation that on the fateful day, they had gone to the farm to sell some animals when they found people clearing and demarcating their land for the SGR compensation.

“We told them to go away which they did,” Mark says. But this was not the end. It was actually the height of their woes.

“The police came to us later and started shooting at my brother. My father rushed to defend him against the attackers. That is when he was shot at. The bullet hit his finger and the middle of the abdomen tearing many essential organs,” he says.