NAIROBI — Former Sub-County Criminal Investigations Officer Tiberius Ekisa on Wednesday told a Nairobi court that he never gave any “shoot to kill” orders during the anti-government protests held on June 18 and 20.
Testifying before Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo at the Milimani Law Courts, Ekisa said that all units stationed within the Central Business District (CBD) — which was under his jurisdiction — acted within the law and recorded no casualties.
“I did not give any shoot to kill orders on the 18th and 20th June,” he testified. “In fact, there were no casualties where my officers were stationed.”
Ekisa told the court that his team had been deployed to Parliament on both protest days following intelligence reports that some individuals were planning to steal the mace in a bid to disrupt parliamentary proceedings.
He recounted receiving information that a man had died from a gunshot wound and his body taken to Bliss Hospital.
He dispatched an inspector to verify the report, and upon a search of the body, an identity card confirmed the deceased was Rex Maasai.
According to Ekisa, investigations into the circumstances surrounding Maasai’s death were hindered by poor cooperation from key institutions.
“The hospital was not cooperative during the probe,” he said, adding that his team had to rely on information from security guards near the area to trace the possible scene of the shooting.
He noted that despite canvassing the area, no bullet heads or cartridges were recovered from the scene.
Ekisa also revealed that he had written to the Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre (IC3) at Jogoo House requesting CCTV footage from the National Police Service (NPS) surveillance system.
However, he was informed that all cameras were offline during the protests due to fibre optic issues.
On cross-examination, Ekisa denied any knowledge of a police unit referred to as “Alpha-Mike,” stating that different teams often use various call signs.
The hearing continues.
Written by Were Kelly
