The court in Garissa has begun hearing a disturbing case involving the death of a young refugee girl from Wajir County.
Three men accused of being behind the killing of 17-year-old Gaala Adan were recently released on a Ksh.100,000 bond each after denying murder charges.
The accused Mohammed Kassim Tiffow, who was the husband of the deceased, together with Mussa Sheikh Ahmed and Adan Mohamme Ahmed appeared before Justice John Onyiego, where the prosecution outlined its plan to call six witnesses to testify in the case.
The witnesses include Gaala’s mother, Amina Abdi Noor, her stepfather, Mahamud Mohamed, their landlady, Qurisha Ibrahim, two neighbours, and the investigating officer, Corporal Lucas Musambi.
The courtroom listened as Noor gave an emotional account of her daughter’s troubled marriage, which she said started showing signs of trouble shortly after the wedding. The marriage, held under Somali rites at Dagahaley Refugee Camp, was not one Gaala had willingly accepted.
Her mother told the court that Gaala had expressed unhappiness about the arrangement and had often shared voice messages describing her fear and frustration.
Her stepfather, Mohamed, supported her statement, saying that he too had received reports of continued abuse in the marriage. He added that despite their efforts to intervene, the situation only seemed to get worse over time.
The accounts painted a picture of a young girl trapped in a painful situation that eventually led to tragedy.One neighbour told the court that on the night of the incident, one of the accused men came to him claiming that Tiffow, the husband, had been stabbed by his wife.
Alarmed, the neighbour rushed to the scene, only to find Tiffow outside the house with visible stab wounds.
Together with others, they quickly took him to the hospital to receive medical care. However, when they returned to the house, they found it engulfed in flames. Inside was the young girl, locked in the house as it burned.
Despite desperate attempts to rescue her, Gaala was found lifeless, having suffered severe burns.
The investigating officer, Corporal Musambi, testified that when police arrived at the scene, they recovered a knife believed to have been used in the confrontation. He also documented the scene by taking photographs and collecting several pieces of evidence that could assist the prosecution.
Musambi later attended the postmortem examination conducted on March 22, 2025, which confirmed the cause of death before the body was handed over to the family for burial.
The tragic story of Gaala Adan has left many in the refugee community and across Wajir County calling for justice.
The next phase of the case is scheduled for hearing on November 4, 2025, when more witnesses are expected to testify and provide further details on what happened on that fateful night.
The court process continues as the family of the deceased holds on to hope that the truth will be revealed and justice served for their daughter.
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