Five police officers were ordered to serve a three-month imprisonment or pay a fine of Ksh10,000 each after failing to honour court summons to testify against police officer Ahmed Rashid, who was involved in a fatal shooting.
The punishment was ordered during the hearing of the case at the High Court in Kibera, in which a Pangani police officer is accused of fatally shooting two young men in Eastleigh in 2017.
Of the six police officers lined up to testify, only one showed up, while the other five skipped.
Prosecutor Christine Timoi informed the court that one of the five had arrived at the courthouse before proceedings began and told her that his colleagues had refused to testify and then disappeared.
Justice Diana Kavedza further ordered the Inspector General of Police to physically produce the five officers in court on July 31.
During the proceedings, video footage retrieved from the National Police Service's (NPS) Integrated Communication, Command and Control Centre (IC3) was played before the court.
In March 2017, the video of the defendant shooting the two victims, Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dahir Kheri, went viral, sparking a public uproar.
What followed was a long judicial process complicated by the fact that the two victims were suspected members of an Eastleigh gang that had been terrorising residents.
It was compounded by Eastleigh residents and business owners appealing to the government to show mercy on Rashid, terming him a public servant committed to preserving the area's security.
“Before Ahmed Rashid was deployed to this area, Eastleigh was uninhabitable. People have forgotten about 'Super Power' (gang); they thrived in Eastleigh, and because of Ahmed Rashid, they are no longer here," the secretary of the Eastleigh Business District Association said in November 2022.
However, the Independence Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) established that the fatalities were occasioned by police action and recommended murder charges.
On April 17, 2023, Rashid was charged with two counts of murder after being declared fit to stand trial after undergoing a medical examination.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail of Ksh200,000 as the case continues.
