Kenyan Judge: Pakistani Journalist’s Death Was Caused By Police

According to a lawyer and the journalist’s family, a Kenyan court declared on Monday that the police shooting death of a Pakistani journalist in Nairobi in 2022 was illegal and unconstitutional.

Arshad Sharif was shot dead by police at a traffic roadblock, and Judge Stella Mutuku also criticized Kenya’s attorney general and director of public prosecutions for their lack of diligence in the investigation.

The family of Arshad Sharif has charged that a Kenyan police special squad killed him on purpose. The 50-year-old journalist left Pakistan early this year to escape being detained there on suspicion of disparaging national institutions there.

Pakistani investigators came to the conclusion that Sharif’s murder was a “planned assassination” in December 2022. According to their report, Sharif was shot from within the car or at close range, resulting in his death.

None of the police officers involved in the shooting have been detained or charged, and Kenyan authorities are still looking into the death.

The court ordered Kenyan authorities to wrap up their probe into the police officers in its ruling on Monday. Additionally, it mandated that the government pay Sharif’s family 10 million Kenyan shillings ($78,000).