Sharif, a senior investigative journalists and television anchor, left Pakistan in August 2022 after facing threats linked to his work and had been living in self-imposed exile in Kenya. On October 23, 2022, officers from Kenya’s General Service Unit opened fire on the vehicle in which he was travelling near Tinga Market, south of Nairobi. Police acknowledged firing the fatal shots but initially claimed they had mistaken the vehicle for one linked to a carjacking.
A two-member Pakistani fact-finding team sent to Kenya concluded in December 2022 that the killing appeared to be a “planned targeted assassination”. Its report identified contradictions in witness and police accounts and said Kenyan authorities had not provided full access to relevant officers and evidence. Pakistan’s Supreme Court subsequently directed authorities to register a criminal case, and a Special Joint Investigation Team was established.
Following constitutional reforms in Pakistan, the proceedings were transferred to the country’s Federal Constitutional Court, which ended its supervision of the investigation in early 2026. The criminal investigation remained with law-enforcement authorities, but no arrests, prosecutions or clear timetable for accountability followed.
In Kenya, one of Sharif’s widows, Javeria Siddique, pursued legal action with the Kenya Union of Journalists and the Kenya Correspondents Association. Kenyan courts found that the shooting violated Sharif’s constitutional right to life and awarded his family KES 10 million (approx. USD 77,000) in compensation, but declined to characterise the killing as ‘torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment’. However, on July 3, 2026, Kenya’s Supreme Court dismissed a final appeal seeking to compel prosecution of the officers, release investigation records and increase compensation, holding that charging decisions rest with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
