Nairobi on its knees as gangsters run riot

Wilson Juma Abura had just had his regular workout at a city gym and was walking to his car at about 8pm. Two gunmen lying in wait emerged and shot him five times in the chest and stomach at point-blank range. The ministry of Public Works engineer died instantly.

The April 7 incident outside Gym & Tonic on Baricho Road near Nakumatt Mega had all indications of a well-planned execution rather than a spontaneous crime or a carjacking gone wrong.

According to witnesses, the two gunmen waited for Mr Abura and called out his name when he was putting his bag into the car. As he turned and surrendered on seeing guns pointed at him, the hit men fired and disappeared as watchmen in the vicinity fled at the sound of gunshots.

The gangsters did not attempt to steal his car or frisk him for his wallet or any other valuables.  

This is one of the many incidents of murder and armed crime in Nairobi even as police paradoxically maintain the situation is normal.

Virtually every corner of the city has become unsafe as hoodlums lurk all over. Many lives have been snuffed out and others maimed, a situation that makes the city horrendous.

Two weeks ago, a member of the same gym, Mr Ben Oyomba, was shot dead as he was driving near Museum Hill. The transport company fleet manager was talking to a friend on his phone at the time of the shooting. The friend on the other end heard the gunshot before the phone went silent.

Mr Abura, a father if four, was buried on Saturday at his Amerikwai village home in Busia.

He and Mr Oyomba are among six people who have been brutally murdered in the city in the last two weeks.

Although police have obtained Close Circuit Television pictures of the suspects in Mr Abura’s killing, no arrests have been made so far. 

Two weeks before Mr Abura’s murder, the bodies of Police Chief Inspector Henry Anunda and his son Josephat Omambia Anunda, a former University of Nairobi engineering student, were recovered in a coffee plantation in Kiamumbi area in Kahawa West.

Initial reports indicated the police officer had gone to visit his son in Kiamumbi area when they were abducted and held hostage before being killed using the officer’s own gun.

The police, in a statement, blamed the killing on the outlawed Mungiki sect. The statement said the father of five may have been killed because his presence was seen as a threat to sect activities in the area.

It was later revealed Mr Anunda and his son had been held hostage for a while and had been forced to withdraw Sh100,000 before they were killed. The officer’s car was later found abandoned outside a bar in Kayole area.

Father and son were buried last Friday at Kiogoro Otamba village near Kegina SDA church.

Like in the other murders, no suspect has been arrested.

Then there is the yet unresolved murder of Senior Resident Magistrate Rogers Fundi in the Pipeline area of Embakasi.

Mr  Fundi’s half-naked body was recovered outside a bar on North Airport road about 20 metres away from the crime-ridden Mukuru slums.

Mr Fundi presided over the Traffic court at the Nairobi Law courts.

The 33-year-old judicial officer, who lived in the nearby Fedha Estate, had not been home for 24 hours. His body had scratch marks on the neck and abdomen. Police arrested several people including a military officer in connection with the killing and are expected in court this week.

It is suspected the magistrate might have been killed by bar patrons who mistook him for a thief.

Embakasi police boss Rono Bunei said police were still sifting through the evidence.

Then there was the murder of Kenya Institute of Mass Communication lecturer David Kamau on the night of April 1.

Mr Kamau was being driven in a taxi to his King’eero residence when gunmen struck.

The father of five was also buried on Friday, at the family home Mukurwe village, Mukarara, Gatanga District.

And like has become the norm, police have not arrested any suspect in connection with the murder even as violence is increasingly coming closer to home for Nairobi residents.

“I was hit by an iron bar on the head a few metres from my house in Kayole estate. It was around midnight,” Mr Justus Kiongo said.

“After the attack, I can’t tell what happened next as I found myself at the Kenyatta National Hospital where I spent three weeks with deep head injuries.”

All this shows it is clearly not business as usual in the city, except for the criminals.  

Last week, two gangsters who had snatched Sh1 million from a businessman were killed in the city centre – one shot by police and other lynched by angry wananchi.

The gunmen who were riding on motorcycles were part of a six-man gang that trailed Mr Harrison Mwangi from Kayole, where he runs a supermarket, to the city centre and pounced on him minutes before he entered a bank to deposit the cash.

But the robbery attempt went wrong when a crowd gathered at the commotion and surrounded the gangsters.

Two people were shot and injured, one on Harambee Avenue near Electricity House and the other on Mfangano Street about a kilometre away as a crowd pursued the fleeing gangsters.

A day earlier, armed gangsters raided the Citi Hoppa offices on Mama Ngina Street and robbed employees of Sh4,800 and mobile phones after failing to get a key to the safe.

They stormed the office hardly 100 metres from the International Life House which houses a police post and staged the daring robbery. They escaped before police arrived at the scene during the 8pm incident. 

A week earlier, two criminals were shot dead near Kenya Cinema after their attempt to rob a man who had just withdrawn money from an ATM was foiled.

Even as reports of murder and armed crime increase in the city, police maintain the situation is normal. The police have seen no need to issue any statement assuring Nairobi residents of their safety.

The last statement by Kenya Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe simply stated police were keenly monitoring crime trends and working to ensure the city was safe for all to conduct their business.

For the family of Mr Wilson Juma Abura and many others, that must sound like a sick joke.