Court Defers Ahmed Rashid’s plea taking to February 9

Suspected killer cop Ahmed Rashid plea-taking has once gain been deferred to February 9, 2023.

This is after the suspect appeared virtually for the plea while in Garissa County where he told court he had gone to attend to a family matter.

Judge Kanyi Kimondo ordered the accused, who attended Thursday’s session online to surrender himself to the Garissa Township DCIO by end of today, January 26.

Thereafter, he will be escorted to the Mathare Teaching and Referral Hospital in Nairobi for a medical/psychiatric examination.

“In default of doing so, a warrant of arrest shall be issued,” Judge Kimondo said.

“If the suspect voluntarily surrenders himself to the police as above ordered, and proceeds for the psychiatric examination as I have ordered, the police will be at liberty to release him on bond on terms to be determined by the officer commanding the station. However, the suspect shall be in the hands of the police at the time of plea taking,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rashid’s lawyer Danstan Omari has made an application seeking to bar the suspect from taking the plea.

The application will be mentioned before the judge a day before the plea is taken.

Rashid is accused of shooting dead Jamal Mohamed and Mohamed Dahir in Eastleigh, Nairobi on March 31, 2017.

The two victims, who were unarmed, were killed over allegations that they were part of a criminal gang.

In an amateur video that circulated widely on social media platforms, Rashid was seen gunning down the two men in broad daylight, despite one of them raising his hands in surrender.

At one point, the feared officer was seen requesting for another pistol before going ahead to pump more bullets into the body of one of the men.

Rashid’s plea taking comes following a recommendation by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to have him charged with murder.