• Reliable but confidential sources have revealed another blunder caused by trigger-happy undercover cops that led to the killing of the innocent 13-year-old, and the grand plan to cover up the shooting.
• Leader of the undercover police team said to be untouchable.
Puzzling and disturbing details have emerged about the fatal shooting of Yassin Hussein Moyo, a Class 8 pupil in Kiamaiko who was on his balcony, laughing with his family when struck by a bullet.
Reliable but confidential sources have revealed a familiar-type blunder by trigger-happy undercover cops that led to killing of the 13-year-old, and a plan to cover up the killing and the guilty person.
On Monday evening, a team of police officers from Pangani police station left for evening patrols. Curfew is at 7pm.
The team headed to Huruma area in a Toyota Probox car.
“A few minutes past 7pm, they spotted some youths in Kiamaiko area but instead of aiming at them, the officers shot indiscriminately,” the source said. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, and just-started investigations, he cannot be named.
One bullet hit Moyo in the stomach while he was playing at the balcony. Internal organs were ruptured.
“I was watching the news at 7.20pm at a friend’s house, while Yassin and my wife who was feeding our one-year-old child were seated at the balcony. Then I heard gunshots,” Moyo’s father Yusuf Moyo told the Star on Tuesday.
The boy died at 3am on Tuesday while undergoing surgery at Mama Lucy Hospita.
While Police IG Hillary Mutyambai directed immediate investigations into the death, the Star understands that detectives have collected guns from Huruma police station for analysis.
However, no gun from the Pangani team will be subjected to forensic analysis., the Star has learnt.
The cover-up plan, according to sources, is to find no link between the guns and bullet recovered from the boy's body. The plan is to blame unknown gangsters for the shooting.
About 10 guns from the team under investigation are expected to undergo ballistics analysis to connect the dots between guns and the death bullet and shell casings recovered from the body.
“They refused to hand over their guns, which were used for shooting, for investigations. We fear this boy may never get justice,” said the source who is a DCI officer apprised of the operations of the Pangani undercover team. He said the actual guns used in the shooting were not turned over, only other weapons.
The team operates in the shadows of a crackdown on crime despite the fact the undercover police teams are code-named SPIV.
Sources say their leader remains untouchable and few question his movements, not even his immediate boss, the Officer Commanding Station.
Nairobi’s informal areas are in the throes of a homicide crisis and the usual suspects to blame include cartels and gangs -while police officers who regularly commit extrajudicial killings remain in service.
On Wednesday repeated calls to Starehe subcounty Police Commander Alice Kimeli went unanswered while Nairobi police boss Philip Ndolo was unreachable as his phone was off.
Critics say police have brought more harm to the community - more than coronavirus pandemic- in just four nights since the anti-virus curfew began.
“Where is our safety if not in our own homes? We want justice for my boy. We know nobody can bring my son back to life but I hope the perpetrator does not go unpunished,” the father Yusef Moyo said during an interview at his home in Kiamaiko.
The 7pm to 5am curfew is intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but members of public and civil society groups are up in arms over the manner in which police are enforcing the curfew.
Yassin was killed at his own home.
Moyo’s killing is the third after two boda boda riders succumbed to injuries inflicted by police officers enforcing curfew in Mombasa and Homa Bay last week.
While agencies including Ipoa and the Director of Public Prosecutions have POA and ODPP have swung into action over the killings, it is far from leather whether the killers will be brought to book.
(Edited by V. Graham)