Khadijah Hussein, the mother of 13-year-old Yassin Moyo, who was shot and killed during the enforcement of the COVID-19 curfew in 2020, gave a tearful testimony before Justice Lilian Mutende, recounting the harrowing events of that tragic evening.
Appearing in court, Khadijah described how a normal day in their household turned into a nightmare on the evening of March 30, 2020. She recounted that around 6 p.m., she sent her son Yassin upstairs to retrieve a neighbor’s phone that was charging in her bedroom. Yassin returned a few minutes later, without the phone, and told the family he had heard a commotion outside, urging them to come upstairs and see what was happening.
The family, along with the neighbor, went to the balcony where they observed groups of police officers patrolling the area. Yassin stood on a chair in the corner of the balcony, while the others quietly watched from below. Khadijah recalled how one officer continued to walk towards them after the group split up. The children, fearful, asked their mother if the officer would shoot them. She reassured them that he wouldn’t, as he was just patrolling.
But moments later, Khadijah heard a gunshot. Panic ensued, and she quickly told her children to lie down. That’s when she realized Yassin had been hit. “We were there for around 10 minutes when I heard a gunshot and I told all the kids to lie down. Then, I realized that Yassin had been shot. He told me, ‘Mum, nimegongwa (Mum, I’ve been hit),’” she recounted, her voice breaking.
As the family screamed in terror, Khadijah held her son in her arms. His sister rushed to help, unbuttoning Yassin’s shirt, revealing a bullet wound in his stomach. “I was still wailing uncontrollably when neighbors came and assisted in taking us to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, I saw my son was in a bad state,” she said. Later, at Mama Lucy Hospital, Khadijah was informed that her son had passed away.
At this point in her testimony, Khadijah was overcome with emotion and had to pause briefly before continuing.
During cross-examination, Duncan Ndiema’s defense lawyer, Danstan Omari, questioned Khadijah about the statement she had given to the police, suggesting discrepancies between her written statement and her testimony in court. Khadijah explained that while the police officer wrote the statement on her behalf, she couldn’t confirm if everything she said was accurately recorded.
Omari further suggested that the officer who shot Yassin may have mistaken him for a sniper, given that Yassin was standing on a stool and appeared taller than the others. “I put it to you that, just like President Donald Trump’s assassination, this person was afraid that there might be a sniper on that balcony, thus shooting,” Omari argued.
Khadijah rejected this narrative, insisting that her son was simply standing in his own home and had every right to do so. She asserted that no one had the right to shoot him under any circumstances.
