Mystery as Garissa taxi driver dies in controversial circumstances

Police, family members and local leaders yesterday differed in the mysterious death of a taxi driver in Modika, Garissa County.

While leaders and family members maintained that the deceased Ahmed Sheikh Omar was shot dead by Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), police claimed he died in a road accident.

On Monday, leaders including Garissa Township Member of Parliament Dekow Mohamed Barow, former Lagdera MP Mohamed Hire and former Garissa Woman Representative Shukran Gure demanded immediate arrest and prosecution of officers involved.

Barow said the era of police brutality and extra-judicial killings is over and leaders will pursue the issue to its logical conclusion.

“As leaders we will not rest until whoever is responsible for the death of this young man will be brought to justice, gone are the days when police can kill and get away with it,” he said.

Former MP Hire said he knew the deceased personally and he had no criminal record but doing genuine taxi business terming a sad day as his life has been cut short but officers.

Describing the officers as trigger happy, he wondered why would police officers kill an innocent man out to feed his family, disputing police claims that the deceased died in an accident.

“They killed him and recorded that he died over accident when bullet wounds on his head is very clear, the public and witnessed have stated that they shot him, if they had any issue with, they would have deflated the tires to immobilized the vehicle but why would they kill him,” posed Hire in an emotional press briefing.

He called on Director of Criminal Investigation Mohamed Amin and Independent Oversight Policing Authority (IPOA) to speedily investigate and explain why that young man was killed.

The leaders accused the Rapid Deployment Unit of being involved in harassment of motorists and doing illegal business within the highway, a work they said is supposed to be done by traffic officers.

Former Garissa Woman representative Shukran Gure said it's a sad day for people of Garissa when police can casually shoot and kill civilians saying that they will not rest until the suspects are arrested.

“There is unemployment and many youths are currently doing business but killing innocent people we won’t allow that to happen, we are asking leaders to unite and find justice for this young man,” she said.

Baraki ward representative Hassan Geley said it’s the second incident involving police brutality in a span of one week wondering why the officers involved recorded it as an accident when they knew clearly that they killed him.

We are asking IPOA and DCI to expedite the investigation to ensure RDU stationed at Modika are arrested and arraigned in court expeditiously,” said Geley, flanked by other leaders.

Garissa Human right activist has called for immediate prosecution of officers involved saying police have been killing and harassing innocent individuals with no accountability.

“This has been the trend police have become a law unto themselves killing innocent people, their work is to arrest and arraign suspects, we are calling for speedy investigation and people involved taken to court,” said Muktar Dahir, chairman Garissa human right network.

IPOA investigators set to visit the scene while government pathologist and family were expected at Garissa referral hospital for postmortem.

Meanwhile leaders in Garissa have also asked for immediate investigations into yet another mystery death of police officer in Damajaley where police claimed he died over suicide while the family maintained that he was killed.

Garissa Township Mp Dekow Mohamed Barow appealed to Ipoa and Directorate of Criminal investigation to speedily investigate the incident noting that they believe the deceased was killed and his death appeared to be suicide.

The death of this young man is shocking he was at the border serving his country from insurgence and here we are told he died by suicide which is not logic, we will wait for postmortem and investigations to know the what exactly killed him,” he said.

in a statement police claimed Hussein Mohamed Sahal committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree before he was discovered by General Service Unit camp 50m from the scene.

The statement that appeared to contradict itself said officers from Liboi police station visited the scene and found the deceased hanging on a cactus tree upon examination they claimed the body had bruises and, on the legs, and hands.

“The officer had been released from off duty on 19th December at about 1700 hours On number 11/19/2025 and that was the last time he was seen alive, the body has been removed to Garissa referral hospital for post mortem,” said the statement.