Ipoa probes Pangani 'execution' incident
Officers from the Pangani Police Division are on the spot for executing two suspected criminals outside the station.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) on Friday evening commenced an investigation into a controversial incident where officers from the Pangani Police Division were caught on video executing two suspected criminals outside the station on Thursday night.
The video, which has gone viral, has attracted condemnation from Kenyans after it emerged that the accused officers belong to the infamous Pangani Six whose leader Ahmed Rashid was caught on camera a few years ago executing a suspect who had surrendered.
Sergeant Ahmed Rashid who is loved and hated in equal measure leads a crack team that is responsible for dealing with armed gangs in the larger Eastleigh, Mathare and Pangani areas. In 2017 he executed two teenagers who were suspected criminals in cold blood outside a shopping mall in Eastleigh creating an uproar.
Extrajudicial killings
On Thursday night, the Pangani Six which has been accused by various human rights groups of being behind a spate of extrajudicial killings of suspects in the slums in Eastland’s Nairobi arrested two suspected criminals that they claimed were part of a gang that had robbed a woman of her phone.
But instead of taking them into custody as required by the law they made them lie down on the road before they pumped bullets into their bodies. But a police report by the officers about the incident says the opposite.
In the report seen by Nation.Africa, the officers told their superiors that they challenged the suspected criminals to surrender but they refused and shot at them, prompting a shootout. The incident happened at 12am on Friday morning.
"This morning one Nimo Isaac Ali reported that while he was walking along Agoi road within Pangani shopping centre she was blocked by two motorcycles and robbed (of) a Samsung mobile phone S10 and gold earrings worth Sh100,000 by four robbers," says the report sent to police headquarters from Pangani.
"A crack team of officers drawn from Pangani Police Station and the DCI rushed to Pangani in search of the motorcycles," the report says.
Fabrication
The police said a patrol team spotted two of the suspected thugs on a motorcycle on Thika Road, prompting a chase that ended on Graffins Road, behind the Pangani Police Station.
"A serious shootout ensued and the officers managed to fatally injure two robbers," the police claim in their report, which according to a video that captured the drama, is a fabrication.
The video shows the two suspected robbers lying on the ground next to a white Toyota Probox surrounded by several officers. One of the officers then moves a short distance from the suspected thugs before firing two shots.
When asked, Police Spokesperson Bruno Shioso informed Nation.Africa that he was aware of the incident and repeated the same script as that shared by the Pangani Police Station.
“Following reports from a known complainant, the police alongside Starehe DCI Officers responded. There was a fire exchange and the police had to respond firmly,” he said.
“Once the police signal was circulated, all the police in the area were alerted and it was very efficient because they quickly identified one of the suspects’ motorcycles,” he added.
Mr Shioso then said that the other two suspects who were on the other motorcycle are, however, still at large but the police were still pursuing them.
What is unclear even from Mr Shioso’s explanation is why robbers who had been reported to have stolen from the Pangani area were spotted along Thika Road.
IPOA told the Nation.Africa that it has commenced investigations.
“The Independent Policing Oversight Authority has learnt of a shooting incident that supposedly happened in the wee hours of Friday at Pangani Nairobi,” said the authority’s chairperson Anne Makori.
“A rapid response team has responded to these reports. On completion of investigations, where fault is found, the authority shall not hesitate to make recommendations, including but not limited to prosecution,” she said.
