Lawyers representing the family of deceased Somali-American businessman Bashir Mohamed have written to the Director of Public Prosecutions seeking an independent investigation into his murder.
Mr Mohamed disappeared on May 13 after leaving Mialle Lounge in Lavington only to be discovered dead and his body thrown into River Nyamindi in Mwea, Kirinyaga County.
A post-mortem revealed that he died from strangulation by hand, and that he was tortured by way of being hit with a blunt object, burning and his toe nails being ripped off his feet.
But in the letter to the DPP, the lawyers are questioning why the police delayed to inform the family of the whereabouts of their kin even after they had positively identified him using finger prints.
According to the lawyers, the body was collected from River Nyamindi on May 16 and booked into Kerugoya Level Five Hospital mortuary by police. He had been booked as an unidentified male of Somali origin.
The following day, an officer returned to the mortuary and took his fingerprints. On May 18, the family says, the deceased was identified as Bashir Mohamud Mohamed and had his name accordingly registered and marked on his tag.
However, according to the family, on Saturday May 22 at around 10am, the police informed the family via phone call that a body resembling their kin had been taken to Kerugoya Level Five Hospital mortuary and that they should avail themselves for identification.
“Whilst the family does not wish to cast aspersions or speculate on the circumstances surrounding Bashir’s death, they ponder why the officers took more than six days to call the family to positively identify Bashir,” the letter says.
“Why did the National Police Service officers purport to call the family to identify the deceased’s body whilst they had already positively identified him?”
The lawyers note that these questions, coupled with many others arising from the circumstances of the businessman's disappearance including why his car was burnt to a shell and the debris cleared from the scene within minutes, is disturbing to the family.
“For the reasons stated above, the family of the deceased is of the view that in addition to the current ongoing investigations being conducted by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), it is necessary for your office to sanction an independent fact-finding process to run concurrently.”
“Our clients reiterate that justice can only be served if Bashir’s killers are arrested, charged in a court of law, convicted and sentenced accordingly.”
