Ex-Pangani OCS places Sergeant Rashid at scene of fatal Eastleigh shooting

Former Pangani Police Station Commander Lucas Ongaya placed Sergeant Ahmed Rashid at the scene of the shooting of two teenagers outside Amal Shopping Complex on March 31, 2017.

Ongaya is the fourth witness in the murder case against Sgt. Rashid, who is charged at Kibera Law Courts with the murder of Jamal Mohammed and Mohammed Dhair Kheri.

Sgt. Rashid faces charges of murder contrary to Section 203 as read with Section 204 of the Penal Code for allegedly murdering the two on March 31, 2017.

Ongaya testified that he overheard a conversation between Rashid and the control room where Rashid reported a robbery and shooting incident shortly after 3 PM. In the conversation, Rashid stated that three robbers had confronted a man inside the mall, and two had been shot while a third escaped toward St. Theresa's Church near Juja Road.

Ongaya said that a few minutes later, he received a call from his superior, the former Starehe Divisional Police Commander (OCPD) Alice Kimeli, who inquired if he was aware of the incident in Eastleigh, to which he confirmed.

Now the Njiru Sub-County Police Commander, Ongaya said he summoned Duty Officer Corporal Abdirahaman Ndengwa, who arrived with a driver within five minutes, and they proceeded to the scene.

Ongaya described manoeuvring through crowds to reach the scene, where he found two men lying close to each other, a homemade pistol beside them, and police officers cordoning off the area. "On the road were two men lying dead, who appeared to have been shot and bled. They were motionless. I could see a homemade pistol, silver in colour, and bullet cartridges," Ongaya stated.

"One of the officers, Cpl. Rashid (as he was then), came to me and told me that these robbers had confronted a man inside the Amal Mall and one of them had run away," he added.

Superintendent of Police Ongaya called the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Scenes of Crime (SOC) officers to the scene. They arrived, photographed, and documented the scene, and collected the evidence, including the ammunition cartridges. The detectives also checked the deceased persons' pockets, finding nothing.

"We took the bodies into the Landcruiser and they were taken to the mortuary. They were booked as unknown persons at the mortuary," Ongaya said.

The incident was initially booked erroneously in the Occurrence Book (OB) as OB 66/31/3/2017 instead of OB 67/31/3/2017 and was corrected the next day in a signal sent to Vigilance (The Kenya Police Service headquarters), Nairobi regional police and DCI commanders, Starehe police and DCI commanders, and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA).

A dispute occurred among the counsels after Ongaya's testimony when the lawyer representing the victims, Elisha Ongoya, insisted on making clarifications from the witness before Sgt. Rashid's lawyers could cross-examine. Rashid's lawyers, Danstan Omari and Samuel Nyaberi, opposed Ongoya's line of questioning, arguing it amounted to teaming up with the prosecution.

Omari insisted that Ongoya should be restrained from acting complementary to the prosecutor, stating that the victim's representative has limits in the case between prosecution and defence. This disagreement led to an adjournment as Justice Diana Mochache retreated to decide how to proceed. She will rule on June 13 when the case continues.