A family in Mombasa is in mourning after their relative was reportedly shot and killed by a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officer attached to the Mtongwe Military Base in the coastal city.
The victim, identified as Mary Trizzer Obwor, passed away while undergoing treatment at the Coast General Hospital where she had been rushed to following the incident.
Trizzer passed away while receiving treatment, having been at the facility for the past 15 days.
She is said to have been shot after the KDF officer opened fire in public over an unpaid fare dispute with a matatu tout, while she was at her home in Maweche village, Mombasa County.
''She was shot in the stomach and the bullet exited through her back. The bullet shattered her stomach, leaving the intestines completely perforated,'' a brother to the deceased stated.
''The bullets are reported to be from the KDF. The DCI officer who picked them up after the incident told us that he knew they were from the KDF,'' he added.
The incident left two members of the public dead with one having sustained critical injuries from the same.
The family is now demanding justice from the relevant authorities, although they expressed growing frustration as their pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears each passing day.
Additionally, they called upon the authorities to expedite investigations into the incident.
However, the police denied the claim, maintaining that investigations are ongoing to ensure that they get justice should the officer be found culpable of the criminality.
The police explained that the case may need to be converted into an inquiry before the family can receive a response regarding their plight.
''On the last day, when we called the DCI and informed them of our kin's passing, they never responded on any action and since then they have remained silent,'' the family added. ''They neither receive nor call us to update us on their course of investigations.''
At the same time, the family maintained that they suspect a hidden scheme in the whole affair, with a postmortem report yet to be given to them.
They added that authorities informed them that they would give them the reports after three weeks.
The coastal region has been rife with instances of officers from the disciplined forces taking matters into their own hands.
In a similar incident, officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) shot a man at his home in Tana River after storming the property.
In the incident that happened on December 30, it is alleged that the deceased Issack Jarso Delo, 50, was at his home when about 20 KWS armed rangers stormed his homestead and began searching for him.
According to the brother of the deceased, Ahmed Abubakar WarWario, the rangers demanded to be given an unknown number of goats as New Year gifts, but when he turned them down, they shot him several times and sped off.
