Protect me, Pangani police officer Rashid Ahmed asks court
Troubled cop Ahmed Rashid and the late Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dahir Kheri.
Pangani police officer Rashid Ahmed, who is accused of killing two teenagers in March 2017, wants court to protect him from prosecutors and the civil society over the alleged extra-judicial killings.
This came up yesterday even as activists told him off for seeking to block the impending court trial and urged him to subject himself to the legal process.
Mr Ahmed, in a petition filed at the High Court in Milimani, wants to be granted an order stopping his planned prosecution that is scheduled to commence next week December 8 over the alleged murder of the two teen boys.
In court documents, during the alleged shooting of the pair he was “operating in the line of duty and in self defence”.
He says the decision by the Independent Police Oversight Authority to summon him to answer the charges, six years after the incident, is based on a bad motive and a "well-choreographed plan to fix him without any lawful basis".
He claims that IPOA is not acting in good faith and have a bad motive in their decision as he has never been summoned to give his account on the alleged executions.
But members of the civil society led by Mr Irungu Houghton, who is the director of Amnesty International Kenya, said Mr Ahmed was summoned 11 times by IPOA but failed to show up.
“He was by IPOA but did not appear even once. He declined to appear and it is the opportunity for the victims to get justice. It has taken five years for IPOA to conclude this case. The civil society will monitor the case,” said Mr Irungu, while addressing press outside the Milimani law courts.
A group of protesters also gathered outside the court pressing the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions to drop the murder charges.
Holding banners and placards written “Free Rashid, Police Lives matter” the protesters said the intended prosecution was discriminative as they praised Mr Ahmed for fighting crime in Pangani and Eastleigh areas within the City.
Mr Ahmed will be charged with the murder of Jamal Mohammed and Mohammed Dhair Kheri. Court papers indicate that he killed the pair on March 31, 2017 at Amal Plaza within Eastleigh.
In his petition to court, he wants the ODPP to review the decision to charge him for the murder and pending determination of his suit he wants the DPP barred from charging him.
Through lawyer Danstan Omari, he argues that IPOA summoning him is a well-choreographed plan to fix him without any lawful basis.
He indicates that on the day he is alleged to have executed the minors, he was within Eastleigh area 1st Avenue when a signal was circulated over the police radio of an ongoing robbery at Amal Plaza. He says the robbery was being done at a stall belonging to Al Nur Osman through a petition a police report made by the victim.
As part of his lawful duty to maintain law and order, he says he rushed to the scene of the robbery and came face to face with the armed robbers. There were several other police officers who had heeded the signal at the scene of the robbery.
"The petitioner and his colleagues had been trailing the robbers who on the same date of the incident had robbed several known persons,” reads court papers.
The armed robbers, who were about seven in number, shot at the police officers and members of the public and in a bid to protect lives, one robber armed with a homemade gun was gunned down in a heavy exchange of gunfire.
Ensuing scuffle
“One of the robbers upon realising that he was cornered tried to snatch a firearm from a police officer. In the ensuing scuffle, he was also shot and neutralized,” he says.
He says that police recovered a homemade gun capable of firing, a Somali sword and knives which had been used in the robbery.
The officer adds that the night before the incident they had robbed AlNoor Guleed of his mobile phone and 200,000 shillings.
“They had stabbed him twice in the head and he was able to positively identify two of the killed robbers as the assailants who had attacked him. He is still on medication following the incident,” says the officer.
He adds that two hours before they committed robbery at Amal Plaza, the armed robbers had waylaid Ahmed Abdullahi Mohammed and robbed him his Samsung mobile phone. The victim visited the scene of the robbery and confirmed that the killed robbers are the same ones who were part of a gang that had robbed him of his phone.
He has sued IPOA, DPP, IG and Eastleigh Business Community as in the case. The respondents are yet file their responses.
