Ipoa probes Nicholas Lifede’s fatal shooting
Evelyn Onzere explaining how her son was shot at by the police at her home in Mountain View.
Those who saw Nicholas Lifede being shot in Mountain View estate, Nairobi on Monday, say it happened very fast.
There was a scuffle, shoving, a fiery exchange of words between Lifede and three officers from Kabete police station who reportedly accused him of being a drug peddler.
Ms Evelyn Onzere, Lifede’s stepmother who runs Patience Wines and Spirits shop, said the police officers were on their “usual extortion mission”.
“They were asking for Sh500 but I refused to give them,” she told the Saturday Nation.
“They then threatened to arrest me, insisting on searching my shop.”
Ms Onzere’s 15-year-old daughter took her mobile phone and began recording the events.
The clip, seen by the Saturday Nation, shows a man in civilian clothes slapping the girl before the device falls to the ground.
It was at this point that Mr Lifede reportedly waded into the argument.
“He asked the policemen not to cause trouble and return the phone to his sister,” a witness told the Saturday Nation.
Meanwhile, a crowd had gathered outside. The police officers suddenly turned the heat on Mr Lifede, saying he was a drug peddler.
One of the officers tried to handcuff the 27-year-old but things went downhill fast, witnesses said.
A police officer, identified by Mountain View residents as Baraza, is said to have grabbed the young man by the scruff of the neck and dragged him to a corridor just outside the small compound.
Nicholas Lifede who was allegedly shot and killed in Mountain View estate, Nairobi, on April 12, 2021.
“He was shouting at Nicholas ‘Utajua mimi ni Baraza! (You will know I’m Baraza)’,” Ms Onzere Onzere said.
The policemen lobbed teargas canisters at the crowd when it became hostile.
Two shots then rang out in quick succession. Witnesses said one was fired in the air while the other round struck Lifede in the chest.
Stunned, Lifede broke into a run and jumped over an iron-sheet fence.
Minutes later, he was found lying unconscious less than 20 metres from his home.
Neighbours, friends and locals said he had lost a lot of blood.
Ms Onzere, 42, and her neighbours carried the young man to the bus stop on Waiyaki Way and hailed a boda boda to take him to Amart Hospital, less than a kilometre away.
Workers at Amart Hospital are said to have refused to attend to Lifede, insisting that the family needed to have a P3 form since the wound was from a gunshot.
“I went to Kabete police station to inform the same officers who shot my son to issue a notice. They escorted me back to the hospital but it was too late,” she said.
