Yassin Moyo: Trial of cop begins January 2023.
The trial of a police officer accused of killing Yassin Moyo, 13, will begin on January 23, 2023, about three years after the teenager’s death.
Judge Justus Bwonwong’a said the hearing involving police officer Duncan Ndiema will end by March 2023, two months after its commencement.
Nineteen witnesses will testify against Ndiema, the Director of Public Prosecution said.
Ndiema, on June 23, 2020, was arraigned because of Moyo’s death, which occurred on March 30, 2020. He denied the charge, and the court released him on Sh1 million cash bail.
Moyo was shot as he stood on a balcony watching police enforce coronavirus curfew in Mathare, Nairobi. An autopsy later showed Moyo died of excessive bleeding due to a single gunshot wound in the abdomen.
Moyo was a Class 8 pupil at Ndururuno Primary School in Nairobi. He was at home after the government closed schools to contain coronavirus when he got shot.
The government introduced the night-time curfew, with other measures to slow the spread of the disease. Around that time, Amnesty International, a member of Missing Voices, said police killed at least seven people across Kenya, the vast majority in poor neighborhoods.
Khadija Hussein, Moyo’s mother, said she heard gunshots the night her son was shot.
“So, I told the kids to lie down. I [then] noticed that Yasin had fallen off the chair where he was standing. He told me: ‘Mama I’ve been shot.’,” Khadija said in a past interview.
The father, Hussein Moyo, said his neighbor, who witnessed the incident, saw the policeman steady his gun and aim at his target. The cop let loose the shot and hit the son with live ammunition.
Hundreds of Mathare locals poured into the streets to protest the death—and four rights groups launched a lawsuit against the police over Moyo’s and other killings.
The groups, which included Missing Voices members like Amnesty International Kenya, Haki Africa, and International Justice Mission Kenya, called for compensation from the government and an end to impunity.
