Five dead as city roils in high gun crime

A Police officer looks over the body of a suspect shot dead along Kangundo road on October 10, 2012. Thesuspect was part of a gang that attempted to rob a petrol station. PHOTO / ZADOCK ANGIRA

Police shot dead four suspects in separate incidents on Wednesday in a new surge of gun crime in Nairobi.

Three suspects were shot dead mid-morning along Kangundo road as they attempted to rob a petrol station.

Police recovered a Ceska and Tokalev pistols from the suspects. According to the Police, the Ceska pistol had been robbed from a senior traffic officer.

In the early morning, a suspect was shot dead while his colleagues escaped with gunshot wounds in a foiled robbery attempt at the Kenya Commercial Bank along Nairobi's Tom Mboya street.

The suspects drove to the bank in two vehicles which they parked about 20 metres apart before breaking the rear enterance of the bank.

They used gas cylinders to break the outer door and made their way to the strong room. They tried unsuccessfully to break the strong room.

The bank’s manager later visited the scene and took the officers around and confirmed that no cash was stolen.

Nairobi police boss Moses Ombati said that both vehicles, a white Toyota Rav4 and a grey Toyota Wish, had standby drivers and immediately police were alerted, the suspects started escaping in the cars.

The white Rav 4 sped off towards Moi Avenue, breaking off the barriers. They joined Ronald Ngala and drove for about 500 metres before abandoning the car and escaping on foot with bullet wounds.

The bullet riddled cars were later towed to the Central police station as police launched a hunt for the suspects.

A guard on duty said people wearing long rain coats confronted and tied him in a room before embarking on their mission. But police are questioning him as some of the doors were not broken into.

Initial investigations showed that the main rear door was never forcefully opened, implying that he either opened it for the thugs or had left it open.

Other guards in the nearby buildings said that the men first got out of their vehicles and told them that they were trying to locate and then fix a faulty alarm.

“They had BM security uniforms but we became suspicious since they appeared tense,” said one of the guards.

Mr Ombati also said that they had not ruled out the possibility of an inside job and added that they were liaising with the bank staff to investigate further.