Businessman’s gangland style killing disturbing
Police officer at scene where Mombasa businessman Mr.Shahid Bhutt was gunned down Friday night by armed gang in this picture taken on 12 July 2014.
What you need to know:
- This points to either complicity or incompetence among a section of the security agencies — traits which are unacceptable in a democracy whose oxygen is the rule of law.
The gangland-style killing of Mombasa businessman Shahid Bhutt on Friday night is yet another chilling addition to similar mysterious deaths at the Kenyan Coast.
While it is too early to speculate on the motive of the killing, the manner of his death, months after he was accused of funding terrorism, fits into a worrying trend.
For a country that is not a war zone, it is incredible that in the last few years prominent individuals, including religious leaders, have been shot dead by suspected hitmen without the police carrying out any credible investigation.
This points to either complicity or incompetence among a section of the security agencies — traits which are unacceptable in a democracy whose oxygen is the rule of law.
In the past, sections of the security agencies have been accused of extra-judicial killings. In many instances, there is the persuasive, if simplistic, argument that some of those executed were people who had scant regard for the sanctity of human life. This, however, is the logic of the law of the jungle.
A country that invests a lot of money and hope in the justice system, whose default position is presumption of innocence, must not condone such killings.
