Hundreds of Garissa residents and local leaders have called for speedy investigations into the killing of a 22-year-old taxi driver at the Modika roadblock earlier this morning by an alleged police officer.
According to the residents, the deceased, Aden Mohamed was called by his two friends, Abdiaziz Dere and Abdullahi Mohamed at around 2am in the morning after they were arrested and handcuffed by the police officers at the Modika roadblock so he could help them to be released.
After reaching the area, it is alleged that an argument erupted between the deceased and a police officer, who then shot him in the head at close range.
The residents took to the streets in the morning and for hours engaged the police in running battles, demonstrating over the incident while calling for the arrest of the police officer said to have shot dead Mr Mohamed.
Speaking at the Garissa police station, Ali Hassan, an uncle of the deceased, expressed his sorrow over how his nephew lost his life at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them, calling for the government to act on rogue security officers.
“We are very saddened that our police officers in Garissa have turned into shifta and started killing Kenyans. We have always known that the police are here to protect the civilians but now we see they have turned on us with killings,” Hassan said.
“This is the third killing incident by police officers in the last few months. A very young man, at only 22 years has had his life cut short without a reason. We are telling the government that this must change,” he added.
Abdirizak Sirat Noor, a close friend of the deceased, eulogised him as a caring friend who would not leave others in trouble and called on the government to handle the matters with the sensitivity they need to protect the good relationship the people have had with the police in the last few years.
“The government that ought to protect us is killing us. This is not the first case, because there have been several other cases in the recent past,” Noor said.
“Our forefathers were not good friends of the police until when president Kibaki took office. If these issues are not addressed by the government, we might go back to those times when our relationship with police officers will not be good
