Mombasa,KENYA:Police from Likoni Sub-county have been put on the spot over the death of 34 year old Mohamed Abdurahim who was gunned down on Tuesday.
According to eye witnesses,Abdurahim and his two colleagues had been riding a motorbike when they were accosted by police officers conducting a routine patrol.
Police had demanded to see his identification card before opening fire on him killing him instantly.
Human rights activists in Mombasa have claimed that police had tried to ward off a milling crowd who had witnessed the incident before whisking his body away.
The activists have further demanded the arrest and prosecution of the officers behind the incident.
According to Hussein Khalid the executive director at HAKI Africa,Abdurahim’s two colleagues had fled from the scene after the police started firing at him.
However, police have claimed that the late Abdurahim had exhibited criminal traits.
Speaking to Baraka FM,Likoni DCC Eric Malevu said that the late Mohamed Abdurahim had attempted to snatch a gun from a police officer forcing them to open fire.
Police say Abdurahim defied an order and instead proceeded to snatch the gun from a police officer forcing the police officer to fire at him.
“Anyone who tries to snatch a police officer’s gun is a criminal and our officers were acting in self defense” Malevu said.
On Wednesday a postmortem conducted in the presence of family members and officers from the Independent Police Oversight Authority revealed that the late Abdurahim had been shot four times at close range sustaining injuries on his neck,shoulder and left rib cage.
The postmortem also revealed that Abdurahim’s body had been left under the sun for a longtime as skin had already started peeling off.
Mohamed who had two wives has left behind four children.
This comes just a few weeks after police were again put on the spotlight over the death of a Mikindani tout who is alleged to have died in police custody at Changamwe police station.
40 year old Caleb Ospino had been arrested at an illicit brew den a day before he was reported dead.
Police had claimed that Ospino had died out of intoxication, however, a pathologists report said Ospino died out of multiple injuries.
