An elite Kenyan police unit is on trial on a charge of wrongful death following the killing of a Pakistani journalist in Nairobi last year.

The case opened at the Kajiado High Court on the outskirts of Nairobi on Tuesday, with petitioners claiming that Arshad Sharif’s death was an “assassination” planned in Pakistan.

The critic of Pakistan’s powerful military leadership was killed in October 2022 when the car he was in with another Pakistani man drove through a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital and police opened fire.