Kenyan high court rules police killing of journalist Arshad Sharif unlawful

A Kenya Court on 8th July 2024, found police acted unlawfully over the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in 2022. Arshad was an ardent Imran Khan supporter. He was shot in the head in Kenya by the police  when they opened fire at his car.

Due to his support to former PM Imran Khan, Arshad was charged with multiple cases of sedition in different cities. For this reason, he had to leave his country and relocate to the UAE and thereafter in Kenya where he was ultimately shot dead. 

The reason for his death as stated by Kenyan Police was that they mistook him for another identity who had stolen a vehicle for abduction. Challenging this reason, Sharif’s widow, Javeria Siddique, her lawyer and two journalist groups in Kenya stood up against the police top officials and filed a complaint claiming the ‘arbitrary and unlawful killing’ of Arshad and the respondent’s failure to investigate this case.

Yesterday, the High Court in Kajiado, located south of Nairobi rejected a claim by the police that the killing was due to a mistaken identity. Judge Stella Mutuku gave the judgement that the killing of the journalist was unconstitutional and that his rights to life and safety were violated, the Kenyan Media said.

“I find that the respondents, jointly and severely through actions violated the rights of the petitioners”, Mutuku said. 

Ochiel Dudley, the lawyer of the petitioners said that “Kenya violated the right to life, dignity and freedom of Arshad Sharif from torture, cruel and degrading treatment”. The high court had ordered the Kenyan government to pay up 10 million Kenyan Shillings that goes up to 21.7 million rupees if converted as compensation to the petitioners consisting mainly of his widow Javeira Siddique.