Bashir’s family requests public inquest into his death

Relatives and lawyers of slain businessman Mohamud Bashir Mohamed at Umash Funeral Home in Nairobi. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

The family of slain Somali businessman Mohamed Bashir has written, through its lawyers, to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) asking for a public inquest into Bashir’s death.

In a letter addressed to DPP Noordin Haji, through family lawyer Charles Madowo, the family is seeking answers as to the circumstances surrounding Bashir’s mysterious disappearance and death.

They raise the following issues:

Bashir was reported missing at the Muthangari Police Station on May 16. His vehicle was discovered burning at Kibiku area in Ngong, Kajiado County on the same day, and the shell was removed by unknown people.

The family says it was called to identify the body resembling the deceased by officers from the National Police Service on May 22. They were informed that the body of an unidentified male of Somali extraction had been booked at the Kerugoya Level 5 Hospital mortuary.

“Additionally, the family was informed that an officer visited the mortuary on May 17, 2021, and took fingerprints of the deceased,” the letter continues.

“The family was further informed that on May 18, 2021, an officer returned to the mortuary and identified the deceased as Bashir Mohamud Mohamed. His name was accordingly registered and marked on his person.”

In their request, Bashir’s family questioned these surroundings as follows:

1. Whereas the deceased’s disappearance was widely publicised, why did it take officers more than six days to call the family to identify Bashir positively?

2. Why did the National Police Service opt to take fingerprints of the deceased privately, before any attempt to identify the deceased by his family members positively?

3. Why did the officers purport to call the family to identify the body of the deceased whilst they had already positively identified him?

They want the DPP to allow them to conduct “an independent fact-finding process” along with that of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

On Tuesday, it emerged that Bashir had recently won two tender deals worth Sh2.53 billion.

Bashir, an American-Somali contractor, went missing on May 13 in Kilimani, Nairobi. He was found dead nine days later (May 22), and his body traced to Kerugoya Level Five Hospital morgue.

A post-mortem examination conducted by Government pathologist Johansen Odour on Monday, May 24, revealed that Bashir died by way of strangulation. 

"He died as a result of manual strangulation and there is evidence of torture, he also sustained a head injury due to blunt trauma,” the pathologist said.