- The officer wants the court to protect him from prosecutors and civil society over the alleged extra-judicial killings.
- He said he was operating in the line of duty and self-defence.
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The Pangani-based police officer Rashid Ahmed should have his day in court and not the court of public opinion, a group of civil societies has said.
The Police Reform Working Group said while the government and the police must address concerns with violent crimes in the country, it should be done within the law.
On November 24, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority said Rashid will take plea on December 8 after investigations into the deaths of Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dahir Kheri concluded.
This followed a shooting which occurred at Eastleigh, on March 31, 2017, and established that the fatalities were occasioned by police action.
The Director of Public Prosecution also upheld Ipoa’s findings that there is sufficient evidence to charge Rashid with murder.
However, Rashid on Wednesday applied to stop Ipoa and ODPP from arraigning him to take a plea on December 8, on the murder charges.
According to the PRWG-K, Rashid’s application blocks the constitutional principle that officers can behave above the law.
“The higher standard of proof is to ensure that no person is condemned based on rumours, vendetta, or mistaken identity. Community and intelligence-based policing are what stop crime not handing the power of criminal justice to a single officer or a unit,” they said.
The PRWG said they had also received several complaints against the same officer and others.
“We the PRWG-K believe that citizens and communities have constitutional rights to assemble and express their views under Art 37 and 33,” they said.
“However, summary executions by police officers to members of the public violate Article 26 which protects the right to life and Article 50 which ensures our right to a fair trial.”
They said the killing of the two was not only a matter for the residents of Eastleigh but was a matter of national interest.
“There is a long history of profiling, intimidation and murder of suspects. They among others must be aware that opening the door for unlawful police action opens the door also for enforced disappearances, unlawful renditions and violence along the lines of the so-called operation sanitisation of 2014,” they said.
They dismissed reports that the ODPP, Ipoa and other organizations were protecting criminals.
“Our record is clear, we have stood up and demanded victims of criminality in Yala, Garissa, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nyeri, and Eastleigh for many years,” they said.
“As members of the PRWG, we reassure the country that we shall not relent in our cardinal duty of pursuing human rights violations in our constitutional court as per the Constitution and International Human Rights law’s pronunciations on fundamental Human Rights.”
The officer wants the court to protect him from prosecutors and civil society over the alleged extra-judicial killings.
He said he was operating in the line of duty and self-defence.
He said the decision by Ipoa to summon him to answer the charges, six years after the incident, is based on a bad motive and a well-choreographed plan to fix him without any lawful basis.
He claims that Ipoa is not acting in good faith and have a bad motive in their decision as he has never been summoned to give his account of the alleged executions.