GARISSA—The High Court in Garissa has sentenced a police officer, Adan Boru Golicha, to 5 years in prison for murder in a case where the law enforcement officer had been accused of shooting a civilian 6 times.
While delivering its ruling, the court observed that the accused, despite being a police officer who is expected to maintain law and order, disregarded the law and fired gunshots regardless and has not demonstrated remorse for his actions ever since.
“His unlawful conduct has now incapacitated the victim and subsequently led to the suffering by the victim’s family that was occasioned by the injury suffered, ” the Independent Policing Oversight Authority quoted the court ruling in a statement.
Background Story
What started as a mere altercation following a road mishap fast degenerated into a shooting during which a man died and another suffered serious injury.
The October 15, 2017 incident, along Metameta Central Road in Mandera County drew the attention of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and an investigation was launched.
The investigation pinned then Corporal Adan Boru Golicha, and recommended he be charged with the murder of Yusuf Ali Adan and causing grievous harm to Ibrahim Ibrein Adan.
Sitting in Garissa on September 12, 2023, the Court found him guilty of the grievous harm charge. Prior to the incident at Metameta market the officer was driving along the road when another vehicle rammed into his at the rear.
Both drivers stopped and stepped out of the vehicles then an exchange of words ensued, attracting a crowd of curious onlookers. The Court heard that the officer, who was at the time in civilian clothes whipped out a pistol and fired six shots.
Yusuf, a loader within the market was hit twice in the face and thigh, and later succumbed at the Mandera Referral Hospital. Ibrahim, was wheeling a wheelbarrow along the road when a bullet hit him in the thigh.
He was initially treated at Blue Light Nursing Home and thereafter, he was admitted at a Nairobi hospital where he was operated on to remove the bullet that was lodged in the thigh.
The bullet head was obtained by IPOA investigators and among pieces of evidence, informed the direction of the investigation. After the shooting, the officer entered his vehicle and drove off to Mandera Police Station where he was based and in charge of the armoury.
