Dreaded Eastleigh crime buster Rashid charged with murder, released on Sh200,00 cash bail
The dreaded Eastleigh based police Sergeant Ahmed Rashid was yesterday charged with twin controversial murders of two youthful men six years ago.
Appearing before Milimani High Court judge, Justice Diana Mochahe, Rashid entered a not guilty plea where he had made an application challenging the jurisdiction of the High Court to try murder suspects.
“I am confident that my jurisdiction falls under the constitution it’s not crafted.” Justice Mochache said.
Ahmed is accused of murdering teenagers Jamal Mohammed and Mohammed Dhair Kheri at Amal Plaza in Eastleigh estate, Nairobi on March 31, 2017.
The two victims were killed over allegations that they were part of a criminal gang.
Rashid denied two counts of murder before Justice Mochache, and the prosecution asked the court to remand him at the Industrial area pending a bail hearing.
However, lawyer Dunstan Omari representing the accused objected to an application by the prosecutor to have Rashid remanded at an Industrial Area Prison to await bail application but instead urged the court to release him on bail of Sh100,000.
Omari claimed that remanding Rashid to an Industrial area will be endangering his life.
Justice Mochache declined to allow the application by the prosecution to cancel Rashid’s bond, saying she did not see it necessary to do so, and released him on a Sh200,000 cash bail.
The judge noted there were no complaints from victims on the interference of victims or evidence.
In court documents, the officer who is accused of the alleged extra-judicial killing of two teenagers says that during the alleged shooting of the pair, he was “operating in the line of duty and in self defence”.
His plea taking scheduled for February 9, 2023, was deferred until March 3, when the High Court was to rule on his petition.
Last month, the Independent Medico-Legal Unit, a human rights group, expressed dissatisfaction over the courts’ delay in prosecuting Rashid over the murder.
The statement from IMLU came after the Milimani Law Courts deferred the plea hearing against the Pangani-based crime buster.
The rights lobby challenged the country’s judicial system to fast-track cases of police brutality for the sake of justice to the victims.
Dubbed the “killer cop” by media outlets, Rashid was filmed shooting the two young men as they lay on the ground on a busy street in Eastleigh.
The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) watchdog recommended murder charges against him last November, saying that its investigation into the deaths “established that the fatalities were occasioned by police action.”
