Arshad Sharif case: Kenya journalist has more faith on Pakistani investigators than Kenya police to find truth

KENYA, NAIROBI: A leading crime reporter for a major Kenya TV station has said it looks like that the investigation into the Arshad Sharif murder by the Pakistani fact-finding team will yield more results than the Kenyan authorities and that brothers Khurram Ahmad and Waqar Ahmad are the most important critical witnesses to find the real truth.

Ngina Kirori has been covering Arshad Sharif’s murder story from day one and has done several investigative reports for her television station. She has more hopes in Pakistan than the Kenyan investigators after seeing several “loopholes” in the Kenya police versions and how the whole investigation has been full of contradictions on part of the police, the critical witnesses Khurram Ahmad and Waqar Ahmed and the Pakistan High Commission.

She told The News: “The truth will come out at a certain time. I don’t feel it will come out from the police or the critical witnesses such as Khurram Ahmed but I am sure Pakistani investigation (led by FIA’s Ather Waheed and IB’s Omar Shahid Hamid) will yield more light but I will not expect that anytime soon because a lot depends on critical witnesses like Khurram Ahmad as in will he say in his official statement. The role of independent organisations will be critical too.”

Ngina Kirori said the Kenya police was “full of contradictions” from the very start after Arshad Sharif was killed on 23rd of October on his way to Nairobi from AmmoDump Shooting Range.

She said the police claimed they had blocked the Magadi Road but it turned out there were small stones and no blockade; there was no official road block; Khurram Ahmad was not a brother to Arshad Sharif; GSU officers don’t block roads and don’t man road blocks; there were contradictions in the number plates of two cars; contradictions in what the police said about the operation and the make of car; and the National Police Service (NPS) made misleading statements.

The journalist said the NPS has not made a concrete statement, the post-mortem report was not made public and Pakistan found there was a bullet inside Arshad Sharif’s body and that he was shot at a close range.

Ngina Kirori thought that initially the Kenya police, Khurram Ahmad and Pakistan High Commission in Nairobi agreed to make a similar statement of a road accident and mistaken identity for their own reasons but later on their version fell apart.

She said: “They all said the same thing. Pakistan High Commission denied Arshad Sharif was running from political persecution in Pakistan and had issues. They all had tallied their statements. They said he was enjoying here and was on a tourist visit. The Pakistan High Commissioner said they don’t want to mess up diplomatic relations with Pakistan here. Since then contradictions have come up which means there is something deeper than what we know.”