Political rivals Joho and Omar join demo as Coast courts paralysed

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and Senator Omar Hassan yesterday joined lawyers, rights activists and religious
leaders in a protest against extra-judicial killings.

Families of residents missing when police raided Musa Mosque in 2014 joined the demonstrations that paralysed
courts in the region demanding justice.

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and his political arch-rival Senator Hassan Omar yesterday took a lead in a demonstration against extra-judicial killings.

The two political leaders led hundreds of lawyers, rights activists and religious leaders to protest against enforced disappearances in the country.

Similar protests were held in Malindi, Voi and Wundanyi where lawyers boycotted courts to protest the kidnap and murder of lawyer, Willie Kimani, his client, Josphat Mwenda, and a taxi driver Joseph Muiruri.

In the Mombasa and Malindi protests, families and relatives of local residents missing from February 2, 2014 when police raided Musa Mosque and arrested dozens joined the protests demanding justice.

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Over 100 lawyers took to the streets in Malindi, blaming the police for the recent killings in the area.

Police in anti-riot gear were deployed to the streets where the lawyers led by the local Law Society of Kenya official Kimani Gicharu presented a petition and demanded an end to extra-judicial killings.

In Mombasa, the demonstrators included the relatives of Hemed Salim Hemed and Farah Abdi Farah, who went missing after a raid at the mosque. They were among the tens of youths arrested.

The High Court in 2014 concluded that Mr Hemed disappeared while in police hands, and ordered an inquest, which has never been constituted.

Demonstrations and pickets at the Coast quickly turned into a general denunciation of past killings and disappearances of local activists, Muslim clerics and crime suspects, which remain unsolved.

Governor Joho said no class or sector of society is safe from the mystery killings.

The demonstrators called on Kenyans to be each other's keeper against police brutality and extra-judicial killings, saying it has become a national phenomenon.

Mr Joho, Mr Omar, Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir and Muslim and Christian clerics called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to take action and stop the killings meted out by the police.

They said he must take action against the police given that he swore to protect the lives of Kenyans.

And services at the Mombasa Law Courts were disrupted as judges, lawyers, clerics, human rights activists and the public jammed the corridors to demand an end to police executions.

Mombasa Chief Magistrate Teresia Matheka and Resident Judge Matthew Emukule termed the extra-judicial killings as an affront on "the rule of law and constitutionalism".

"We strongly condemn these killings," said Justice Emukule.