Media council of Kenya calls on police to investigate the killing of Pakistani Journalist

The Media Council of Kenya has called upon the police to investigate the killing of Arshad Mohammed Shariff, a prominent Pakistan investigative journalist who was shot dead by a police officer on Sunday in Kajiado County.

A statement by the council said that the killing of the journalist comes when the global community is about to mark the International Day to End Impunity Against Journalists on 2 November 2022, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution at its 68th session in 2013 in recognition of the far-reaching consequences of impunity, especially of crimes against journalists.

The Foreign Press Association of Africa also released a statement saying it was “deeply disturbed” over the killing and called on the Kenyan government to “fully and conclusively investigate the incident” and “unravel the mystery” behind Sharif’s death.

Sharif’s killing has raised suspicions of foul play among observers, politicians and the press. The journalist, who was a fierce critic of the Pakistani government, fled the country in August after allegedly receiving death threats over his work. His whereabouts were not publicly known. Most of his friends knew only that he had spent time in Dubai and London.

Pakistan has long been unsafe for journalists. It ranked ninth on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2020 global impunity index, an annual assessment of countries where journalists are regularly killed and the assailants go free.