The commission for Human Rights and Justice (CHRJ) has invited the Office of Director of Public Prosecution to revisit a pending case where former Kanu politician and businessman Rashid Sajjad was adversely mentioned for fueling tribal clashes.

In a letter dated 2nd January 2025 the lobby group argues that the police officers and relevant authorities have deliberately refused to implement recommendations captured in the Akiwumi report on tribal clashes at the coast.

The letter is a follow up to a similar letter dated January 1st 2024 by the People’s Movement for Human Rights and Western Human Rights Forum who wrote to the ODPP on the recommendations of the Akiwumi report on the judicial commission appointed to inquire into tribal clashes in Kenya which have never been implemented causing pain and anguish top the families that were affected.

“We are thus instructed to demand that the recommendations in page 290 and 291 recommending investigations of various persons be implemented fully by your good office and our client’s particular interest narrows down to one Rashid Sajjad who according to the report was the chief coordinator and a substantial financier as per the extract from the report on page 41 and 42,”

It further reads: “As regards Rashid Sajjad,it appears that in addition to what Swaleh Bin Alfan said about him there is other evidence, which implicates him in the clashes at the coast. There is no doubt that he was the Chief Co-Ordinator and a substantial financier at the KANU 1997 election campaign at Mombasa. It behooved him that this time, Kanu succeeded fully in the forthcoming general and presidential elections,”

Read also: Hussein must not use governors to force votes from us- delegates fault candidate

Rashid is being put on the radar again by the CHRJ who claim he is adversely mentioned alongside other politicians in pages 39 and 41 of the report.

Page 39 states that: “the politicians at the Coast were also involved in the attacks against upcountry people and should be investigated. We already dealt with Hisham Mwidau and Mwalimu Mwahima. The others are Rashid Sajjad, Rashid Shakombo, Boy Juma Boy, Suleiman Kamolle and Kassim Mwamzandi we have already dealt with large sums of money that Rashid Sajjad gave in the presence of Suleiman Kamole for the raiders in the forest and to help in Kanu election  campaign what we must refer to is Swaleh Bin Alfan’s evidence that he knew Rashid, Shakombo well and who told him that they had people secretly undergoing military training in the forest”

According to the report, this was achieved by displacing violence on the rightly perceived opposition upcountry people so as to ensure that as few of them as possible, voted against Kanu.

“The fact that Rashid Sajjad,and we have no doubt about this, had been specially issued with a police pocket phone by Duncan Wachira in 1992, when he was then the Provincial Police Officer, at the Coast Province, would enable him to eavesdrop on police communications network and to know what actions the police were planning to take against  the Digo raiders. With such information, the Digo youths could elude as often happened, planned public offensive”

Mr. Rashid was a prominent figure in former President Moi’s regime and was made headlines when he was adversely mentioned in a case pitting Dubai tycoon Ali Nasir and the Kenyan government.

In the case, Rashid is said to have  connected  Mr. Ali Nasir in a meeting with former President Daniel Moi where the tycoon parted with a Sh140million bribe to land a contract with the Kenyan Government.

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes saved the Kenyan taxpayer Ksh 40 billion which was the value of the contract the investor wanted to win.

Politicians from all walks of life from the coast region would line up at his private office in Mombasa every election time in the 1990s to collect campaign cash, and Sajjad had the final say over how much each politician would get, even the senior ones.

Sajjad, who at one time served as nominated MP and was once a Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) chairman, has retreated to his Milly Glass and Milly Fruit factories and other businesses in Mombasa.

The lobby group wants the ODPP to serve justice to the families who were affected by quickly implementing the report.