Kenyan court announces verdict in Arshad Sharif murder case

The High Court in Kenya’s Kajiado has awarded 10 million Kenyan shillings to the family of slain Arshad Sharif, a Pakistani journalist who was ‘mistakenly’ shot and killed by Kenyan police officers in October 2022.

Arshad Sharif, senior journalist and former ARY News anchor, was shot dead in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 23 where he was living in self-exile.

The official police statement later expressed “regrets on the unfortunate incident.”

While delivering her judgement today, Justice Stella Mutuku ruled that the use of lethal force against Arshad Sharif by shooting him in the head was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Arshad Sharif’s wife Javeria Siddique through her lawyer, Advocate Dudley Ochiel, requested the court to order the Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions, Inspector General of Police, Independent Policing Oversight Authority, and the National Police Service Commission (the respondents) to provide her with copies of all documents, evidence, films, photographs, and video recordings in their possession related to Sharif’s shooting.

“By shooting the deceased in the circumstances described in this case and which shooting has been admitted save for allegation that it was mistaken identity, the respondents violated the rights of the deceased,” the judge said in an order.

Earlier, Kenyan investigative journalist Brian Obuya raised concerns over the delay in the probe findings into the senior journalist Arshad Sharif murder case.

Brian Obuya had said that the investigators have spent a very long time completing the probe into the Arshad Sharif murder case.