The Kajiado High Court, located on Nairobi’s periphery, began proceedings on Tuesday against an elite Kenyan police team, who stand accused of causing the wrongful death of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif in Nairobi last year. The plaintiffs assert that Sharif’s demise was not accidental, but a premeditated assassination orchestrated in Pakistan.
In October 2022, Sharif, a vocal critic of Pakistan’s influential military leadership, was fatally shot when the vehicle he was riding in, along with another Pakistani individual, bypassed a checkpoint on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, prompting police to fire. Nairobi police had initially expressed remorse for the incident, attributing it to a case of “mistaken identity” during a search for a car implicated in a child abduction case.
However, a subsequent investigation by a Pakistani team contravened this narrative, labelling Sharif’s killing as a “planned assassination”. Javeria Siddique, Sharif’s widow, has since lodged a case against the General Service Unit (GSU), the Kenyan police division implicated in the shooting.
Contrary to the Kenyan police’s assertion that Sharif failed to halt at an outer Nairobi roadblock, his kin and Pakistani investigators maintain that his death was a premeditated act undertaken in Pakistan. “The GSU is the subject of my lawsuit because they committed the crime openly,” Siddique communicated to The Associated Press, “To me, it was a targeted assassination given that he was residing covertly in Kenya following threats received in Pakistan.”
Prior to his death, Sharif, aged 50, sought refuge from Pakistan to evade arrest on charges of defaming the nation’s national institutions – a term applied to those who critique Pakistan’s military, who have governed the country for half of its 75-year existence.
Joining Siddique as joint petitioners are the Kenya Union of Journalists and the Kenya Correspondents. Their allegations presented before the court include an accusation that the Kenyan authorities have neglected to prosecute the officers implicated in Sharif’s wrongful death, and they seek a “public apology to Sharif’s family”.
A statement released by the journalists’ union read, “We have delayed our court appearance as we anticipated that investigations would be conducted and the officer who discharged the firearm would face prosecution. Given the absence of any such action, our decision to take the case to court is validated.”
In a related development, two Pakistani businessmen residing in Kenya, who had previously hosted Sharif during his stay in the East African nation, have been indicted by Islamabad police for their alleged involvement in his death. The case has also elicited international condemnation from human rights organisations.
