Gun-wielding
police officers have shot three innocent people in two separate incidents in the Coast and
Western provinces.
Four police officers have been arrested
following the first incident in Mombasa, which occurred on Thursday night.
In the second incident, Administration
Police officers yesterday morning gunned down two mourners as they carried the casket
bearing the remains of a family member at Inaya sub location in Butere-Mumias District.
Investigations have been launched to
establish the real circumstances of the Mombasa incident.
It is suspected that the policemen shot and
critically injured a motorist at the Nyali Bridge police roadblock, then attempted to make
it to look like a road accident.
The victim of the Mombasa shooting, Mr
Abdulahi Farah, was yesterday fighting for his life at the Coast General Hospital’s
Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The hospital’s chief administrator, Dr
Khadija Shikely, described his condition as critical.
Mombasa CID officers are investigating the
incident after doctors at Coast General Hospital verified that Farah had a bullet lodged
in his head.
In the Western Province incident, the APs
shot the two mourners who were in a procession of family members, villagers and a lobby
group, who were alleging foul play in Nimrod Shanje Okwayo’s death
The APs are said to have shot at the
mourners who were protesting the alleged torture and killing of Okwayo in a police cell.
Trouble started when the family members
arrived at the Evushikingi AP camp at 9am carrying the coffin in a procession.
The two who were shot had accompanied their
family members in a traditional ceremony known as "okusola" as they went to the
AP camp, where they claimed Okwayo was tortured to death.
Family members were forced to abandon the
casket whose top flew open as it fell to the ground. Many of the protesting mourners were
injured as they scampered for safety with the APs in hot pursuit.
It is feared that some of the mourners may
have drowned in a cattle dip within the area as they fled from the scene of the shooting.
During the incident, which occurred in full
view of journalists, a videotape belonging to a People Against Torture (PAT) cameraman was
snatched away from him by the APs at gunpoint.
A PAT programmes officer in charge of
campaigns and advocacy, Mr Kamanda Mucheke, was hit with the butt of a gun butt as he
pleaded with the police officers to spare the mourners.
The shooting incident caused tension in the
area as the angered residents regrouped for battle, but the police thwarted their efforts.
Efforts to get comments from Assistant
Chief Aneke Alubokho were fruitless as the APs chased them away, warning them not to take
any photographs.
The family members later went to the
Western Provincial Police Headquarters to report the incident.
The late Okwayo’s father, Mr Peter
Abiut Mukonyi, complained that despite having reported his son’s death to the police,
no action was taken.
He then approached PAT officials to help
him seek justice for his son.
He said his son was picked up from their
home on June 9, before being taken to the local AP’s camp where he claims he was
tortured to death.
Miss Muhubo Aress, who was with her
fiancÈe Farah in the car when he was shot in the Nyali incident, sustained serious
injuries after the car crashed, and is admitted at Jocham Hospital with multiple fractures
on her jaws.
Sources at Nyali Police Station confirmed
that the matter was reported as a road accident in the early hours of Thursday morning.
However, Aress yesterday disputed the police report from her hospital bed.
She said the police officers manning the
roadblock shot at them twice after they had passed the checkpoint at midnight.
They then stopped at a petrol station
nearby to refuel the car.
As they were leaving, they noticed a public
service vehicle following them and Farah, suspecting that there may be gangsters in it due
to the late hour, decided to drive faster.
As he tried to speed away, they noticed two
police officers armed with rifles in the vehicle and decided to slow down and let the
vehicle pass, but the officers fired at them.
Aress said the first shot missed both of
them while the second shot hit Farah on the left side of the head, causing him to lose
control of the vehicle, which was then hit by a bus.
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