Kenyan Court Orders Compensation for Slain Pakistani Journalist

The Kenyan government must pay 10 million shillings to the family of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif, who was fatally shot by police in Nairobi in 2022. Although officials called it a case of mistaken identity, a report indicated it was pre-planned murder. Sharif had fled Pakistan citing life threats.

The Kenyan government has been ordered to pay 10 million shillings ($78,300) to the family of Arshad Sharif, a prominent Pakistani TV journalist shot dead by police in Nairobi in 2022, as ruled by a Kenyan court on Monday.

Authorities initially claimed the incident was a case of mistaken identity, asserting that police were targeting car thieves when they mistakenly opened fire on Sharif's vehicle at a roadblock. However, findings from a two-member fact-finding team from Pakistan, who meticulously reconstructed the crime scene and examined Sharif's devices, suggested that the killing was a pre-planned murder.

Sharif's widow, Javeria Siddique, filed a lawsuit against Kenya's paramilitary General Service Unit for her husband's wrongful death last October. Sharif had escaped Pakistan after multiple treason cases were filed against him, including accusations that his reporting incited a mutiny among the armed forces, a charge both he and a former government official denied.

(With inputs from agencies.)