Police fire live bullet into Coffee Exchange office in clash with Muthurwa traders

Police fired a live bullet into the offices of the Nairobi Coffee Exchange during a confrontation between Muthurwa business operators on Monday morning.

It was a scary moment for staff at the agency that manages the coffee central auction in the country as they went about their business.

The ammunition was fired from outside through a second-floor window at the KPCU building, which hosts the agency's offices. But it then ricocheted almost 90 degrees and flew for about 20 meters, hitting and splitting a window on one of the agency’s cubicle offices.

Nairobi Coffee Exchange CEO Daniel Mbithi told the Nation the incident happened as police battled protesters at the downtown Muthurwa market who were complaining about increasing cases of mugging and poor sanitation.

The demonstrations were broken with the might of anti-riot police, who chased away a crowd that was gathering near and atop a footbridge on Haile Selassie Avenue.

“We heard a shot tear through the window facing the road before it hit another window of one of our offices. It was scary but we were lucky the bullet did not hit anyone,” Mr Mbithi told the Nation.

The Nation saw a hole — about the diameter of a water tap — on the window facing the road, but the boring created when the bullet ricocheted to the office cubicle was the size of a coffee mug, with cracks extending outwards.

The police did not immediately comment on the incident, but the officers battling the crowd on the streets later picked up the bullet from the office.