Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) have been granted 15 days to have the two police officers who are said to have shot a face mask hawker remanded in custody pending further probe.
The two officers Masinde Barasa and Duncan Kiprono are alleged to have shot Boniface Kariuki at a close range on June 17 along Moi Avenue during a protest at the the CBD following the death of an activist and teacher Albert Ojwang.
The victim, Kariuki was shot on the head and was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital where he was stabilized by the medics. He is recuperating in the Intensive Care Unit.
The officers turned suspects were presented before Milimani principal magistrate Benmark Ekhubi, who granted the detention orders to IPOA officers to complete investigations. were granted the days sought.
Barasa and Kiprono, both attached to Kileleshwa Police Station, had been deployed to the CBD to manage the demonstrations staged by protesters demanding for Ojwang’s justice and resignation of the Deputy Inspector General of Police Eliud Lagat, the complainant said to have directed the arrest of the deceased.
The shooting of the Hawker came barely few days after Ojwang’ was arrested and tortured to death in the hands of the alleged police officers.
This again sparked an outcry and rage among the civil rights societies and those in political class owing to the widespread video showing an officer aiming his gun at the hawker’s head and shooting him at the at point blank range.
The duo have since been suspended from their duties. The defense lawyer Felix Keaton has since recused himself from representing the duo citing online threats directed to him and his family members.
On Thursday June 19, Keaton stated that “I have received over 1,000 messages and calls from Gen Z because of representing a police suspect. As such, I hereby recuse myself from the conduct of the matter,” he stated.
