Eastleigh’s top cop Rashid to face murder charges over death of two

The Directorate of Public Prosecution has approved murder charges against notorious and controversial Eastleigh based crime buster Ahmed Rashid.
Rashid is both popular and unpopular in Eastleigh and Mathare, Nairobi over his modus operandi of addressing various forms of crime.
He has managed to contain crime levels in the area during which some locals complained he applied extra judicial means.
In one of the incidents, the Independent Policing Oversight Authority concluded the investigation into the deaths of Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dahir Kheri following a shooting which occurred at Eastleigh, Nairobi County on March 31, 2017.
The Authority said it established that the fatalities were occasioned by police action.
Guided by Section 29 (a) of IPOA Act, the findings were forwarded to the DPP with the recommendation to charge Rashid, with murder.
IPOA said Thursday, the ODPP, after independently interrogating the case file upheld the findings that
there is sufficient evidence to charge the officer with the offence of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code.
Thursday, IPOA moved to the High Court at Milimani, Nairobi and obtained summons against the police officer, to attend court and take plea on December 8, 2022.
“IPOA remains committed to being independent, impartial and fair,” IPOA chair Anne Makori said.
Rashid had remained untouchable for long over his style of operations.
Many people who complained about him claimed he was untouchable. But some residents praised him saying he managed to contain the crime trend in the areas.
Eastleigh has been facing different types of crimes including the one of stabbing by a gang that consisted mostly of youths who had been deported from other parts of the world.
This forced local business community to ask for deployment of Rashid and his squad that was popularly known as Pangani Six to contain the trend.
In 2017, Rashid was caught on camera shooting at two unarmed men in Eastleigh.
The video that went viral on social media showed a plainclothes police officer shooting at the two as a shocked crowd watched on.
The officer pumped bullets into one of his victims, a young boy, then got another gun from his colleague and sprayed an additional four bullets on the helpless man who was already on the ground.
The development comes in the wake of a series of cases where police are facing charges over their actions.
They include the nine Special Service Unit officers who are supposed to face abduction charges in regard to the two missing Indians and their driver.