Two guards killed as thieves raid Nairobi mall

Two security guards were early Thursday morning killed in a burglary at the Bangkok Shopping Mall in Eastleigh estate, Nairobi.

Property of a value yet to be established was also stolen from five shops located in the mall, during the incident suspected to have happened a few minutes past 1am.

Starehe OCPD Benard Nyakwaka said an unknown number of thieves stormed the mall, beat the guards using blunt objects before gaining access into the mall.

“The doors to the mall were opened. The raiders did not break the door. They then used blunt objects to beat up the two guards, killing them,” Mr Nyakwaka said.

He said the police are interrogating two watchmen in connection to the incident. Owners of the shops that were broken into have also recorded statements at the Pangani and Starehe police stations.

Among the premises that were broken into are two M-Pesa agent shops, a bookshop and two shops dealing in clothes and perfume.

Mr Nyakwaka said police had not arrested anyone in connection to the incident, but police had begun investigations into the incident, which adds to the number of burglary incidences experienced in Eastleigh over the past few months.

One of the owners of the M-Pesa shops told the Daily Nation that he went to open his shop at 5am, only to find the bodies of the two watchmen near the entrance of the shop.

“The door to the shop seems to have been opened with a key. It was not broken. We suspect that the people who broke into the shop might have had a master key or had duplicated our keys,” the shop owner said.

Eastleigh has in the past few months experienced a series of break-ins, with several businessmen losing cash and property worth millions of shillings.

On November 17, a CID officer was arrested together with seven others following a break in into 60 shops at the Mandera Shopping Mall.

Earlier on October 26, eight shops and a college were broken into and property of unknown value stolen at the Al Mubarak Shopping Mall.

On September 15, two suspects were arrested by police after they tried breaking into the Sunrise Shopping Mall. The suspects had been beaten by the residents, prompting one of them to jump from the third floor of the mall in an attempt to escape from the residents who were baying for their blood.

After the robbery on Thursday, the Eastleigh Business Community Secretary-General Ahmed Mohammed said the trend was very worrying.

“It is no longer about burglary and robbery, but it now involves the taking of lives in this kind of manner. We are a very worried community,” he said.

Businessmen said despite police patrols in the area, nothing has changed, as the police are only interested in arresting youth and extorting money from them.