Kenya’s national police service has expressed regret over the death of a Pakistani journalist who had been living in hiding in the country and was shot dead in Nairobi in what it called a case of mistaken identity.
On Sunday, officers opened fire on Arshad Sharif, 50, and a friend after they allegedly drove through a security roadblock outside Nairobi.
The officers fired nine shots at the car, striking Sharif in the head. According to police accounts, they were looking for a similar vehicle that they claimed was linked to a child kidnapping case.
“They did not stop and continued their journey,” the police said on Monday. The car flipped over as police opened fire and pursued it.
Observers, politicians, and the media have all suspected foul play in Sharif’s death. The journalist, a vocal critic of the Pakistani government, allegedly fled the country in August after receiving death threats for his work. His whereabouts were unknown to the general public. Most of his friends only knew that he had visited Dubai and London.
Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister, tweeted on Monday afternoon that he had called Kenya’s president, William Ruto, and requested an investigation into what he described as a shocking incident.
Pakistan’s high commissioner in Kenya stated that it was also in contact with Kenyan police and the foreign ministry about the matter.
The use of lethal force by the force has raised concerns both nationally and internationally. Kenya has been dealing with police killings and brutality for many years. Missing Voices Kenya, an organisation that tracks police killings, has documented over 1,286 such cases since 2007, with 100 occurring this year alone.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) in Kenya, which investigates police misconduct, has opened an investigation into the journalist’s death. However, some IPOA investigations have dragged on for years, and a number of them are still ongoing.
The Foreign Press Association of Africa issued a statement condemning the killing and urging the Kenyan government to “fully and conclusively investigate the incident” and “unravel the mystery” surrounding Sharif’s death.
Javeria Siddique, his wife, told Pakistani media that he had been harassed for months. “He didn’t even reveal the name of the African country where he had relocated due to security threats,” she said.
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Shireen Mazari, a former Pakistani human rights minister, tweeted: “Let there be no doubt, Arshad Sharif was murdered by a sniper bullet to the head.” It was not an accident, as has been suggested.” She provided no evidence to support her claim.
This year, Sharif, who was once close to the military establishment, became one of its harshest critics. Sharif’s show was taken off the air by ARY Network, one of Pakistan’s largest channels, after it was accused of inciting “anti-military sentiment.” The channel later announced that it was parting ways with him due to military pressure.
In August, a court in Islamabad ordered Pakistan’s intelligence agency and police to stop harassing
Sharif after he filed a petition through his lawyer alleging that the security forces were infringing on his fundamental rights.
At the time, police and government sources confirmed that he was wanted in a complaint case, but that no action had been taken to arrest him.
Journalists have long been perilous in Pakistan. It ranked ninth in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2020 global impunity index, an annual assessment of countries where journalists are routinely assassinated while their assailants go unpunished.
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