NAIROBI, Kenya, May 31- The family of Bashir Mohamed Mohamud was thrown into mourning when they positively identified his body at the Kerugoya Level 5 Hospital Mortuary following police summons on May 22, 2021.
The devastating news of Bashir’s death brought to an end spirited efforts by the family to see him alive again. Autopsy report indicates that Bashir whose naked body was found floating in a Kerugoya river, died from strangulation.
While police have since launched investigations into what might have led to the brutal murder of the engineer, the family, through their lawyers have raised pertinent questions that demand police attention and response.
The American-Somali national was abducted by unknown people on May 13. Three days later, his car was found burnt in Kibiku.
Interestingly, the shell of the vehicle was carted away after police who had been at the scene left without securing it. The family also wishes to know why despite the police having secretly taken fingerprints from the deceased and authenticating his identity, it took the police four days to notify the kin.
Bashir’s disappearance and eventual heinous murder is only the latest in a string of abductions and killings that have left Kenyans both petrified as confidence in the ability of the police to carry our creditworthy investigations and protect lives plummets.
In April this year, four men disappeared in Kitengela only for their bodies to be discovered in different parts of the country. It is almost given in Kenya today that if you are reported missing; you are almost presumed dead.
Hopes of finding loved ones alive have been dashed by a criminal justice system that turns a blind eye to the fate of afflicted Kenyans; or are themselves culpable in the disappearances.
The sanctity of the crime scene is central to any effective and actionable investigation. How a police officer can abandon a crime scene without securing the contents is dumbfounding. Yet it is a practice that is becoming widespread thereby eliciting perceptions of either police complicity or incompetence.
Miscreant gangs within the forces have also used loopholes within some national security architecture such as those related to counterterrorism, to target, irregularly apprehend and in some cases kill suspected Kenyans without subjecting them to the due course of justice.
Kenyans are not new to the idea of extrajudicial killings. Systemic police abuses including summary executions, enforced disappearances, missing persons and incidences of torture have all been documented by human rights groups in the country
The secrecy and penchant to suppress the truth by the police often curtail complete account of events, those responsible and accompanying ramifications.
Yet it is only under an accountable system that Kenyan justice system can be functional and utilitarian. If those charged with the responsibility of preserving and enforcing the law are themselves law breakers, then we don’t have a country.
Even criminals outside the police ranks and file have found ways of bending the arc of justice away from themselves. The only thing remaining is for criminal gangs to hire full police stations to stage their atrocities against innocent or suspected Kenyans. Incidences of police hiring out their guns, uniforms and handcuffs continue to be reported among the corrupt practices that define police rot in Kenya.
The jury is still out as to whether Bashir was murdered by those who were supposed to protect him or his life was snuffed by criminals who were steps ahead of the police.
His family and the rest of Kenyans are eagerly waiting to see if justice will be served or it is going to be another stone unturned.
The Director of Public Prosecutions working in concert with the Independent Police Oversight Authority must consistently work to bring rogue police officers to justice. A broken justice system is a recipe for chaos and therefore cannot be the country’s modus operandi. Kenyans deserve better.
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