MOMBASA—Police officers at Mombasa Central Police station have new question to answer after a video clip emerged detailing the moment two Muslim women were killed under the guise of being terrorist.
In an earlier report, police said the station was attacked by three women with the aim of staging terror attack.
Eric Kiraithe, the government spokesman said the attackers were armed with petrol bomb.
“They came to report mobile theft….they hurled petrol bomb at the station,” Kiraithe said during briefing in Nairobi.
However, the police version of the event ahead of the brutal shooting of the three women sharply contradicts the clip that was uploaded by the Star Newspaper on Youtube.
The video shows a woman raising her hand in act of surrender. Next to her lies a motionless body of a woman in a pool of blood.
The two women were identified as Fatuma Omar and Tasnim Yakub.
“We hold that what police said is a total lie and we cannot let it go unchallenged. They are cooking up stories to cover up the whole incident,” Muslims for Human Rights chairperson Khelef Khalifa, said.
“At the moment they (police) have refused to state facts on what really unfolded,” he added.
The video did not capture the preceding event before the two women were shot, but it clearly puts police brutality in question.
In the short clip, the police appear at ease while shooting the women, who by then were motionless. At least six shots were fired.
The police officers continued shooting when there was no resistance or any show of defense.
Human rights body say if the women were suspects, then why did the police officers continue shooting even when they could arrest and interrogate them for more information.
“We hold that what police said is a total lie and we cannot let it go unchallenged. They are cooking up stories to cover up the whole incident,” said Khalifa.
The Mombasa based Muhuri chairman said witness account has it that one of the deceased went to the central police station to report phone theft accompanied by a sister and a friend. An argument between a police officer and one of the women started after the officer attempted to forcefully tear her burqa (a full face veil worn by Muslim women).
She resisted and the officer threatened to undress her. In defense, the woman stabbed the officer with the chain of a key she was holding when he insisted on his threat.
“The police officer shouted ‘terrorist’ and started shooting the three women, claiming they had a petrol bomb,” Muhuri chairperson said.
Khalef said the officers doused the women with flammable liquid to conceal evidence and project the story as terror attack.
“We suspect the bodies were doused in kerosene and set ablaze to make it seem they had bombs, because if it is true they had a petrol bomb that they threw into the police station, why didn’t we have any injuries? And if there were, where are the victims?” he said.
He added, “The word ‘terrorists’ invokes fear. When police want to justify any action of extrajudicial killing they brand the victims terror suspects because the public buys such narratives without question.”
