Kayole, Eastleigh gangs use home-made guns to commit crime

A home-made gun loaded with a bullet found after a gangster was shot dead. Police say gangs in Nairobi are increasingly using this kind of guns to commit crime. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Suspects were killed by police in the cases reported this month before the firearms were recovered.
  • He said the homemade pistols are capable of discharging bullets.

Police in Nairobi have raised concern over the rising number of home-made pistols used to commit violent crimes.

Since the beginning of June, the Nation has documented 15 seizures of the home-made pistols, with half of them found in Kayole and Eastleigh alone.

Earlier last month, police asked members of the public to volunteer information that would lead to the arrest of a maker of the pistols that they described as "disabled and notorious".

This is after several young people arrested in Mihango, Huruma and Dandora gave police information about him.

The police, however, described him as very elusive and that he was being hidden and protected by members of a notorious gang in Dandora. But details about the identity of the man remain scanty.

POROUS BORDER

National Police Service spokesman George Kinoti on Tuesday said the police were now directing their energies to finding the makers of the pistols.

“Several criminals have been arrested with them (home-made guns) and they are helping us in our crackdown on the manufacturers and the suppliers,” Mr Kinoti said.

He added that some of the guns get into the country from neighbouring countries through porous borders.

Suspects were killed by police in the cases reported this month before the firearms were seized.

On Monday, two home-made firearms were found when suspects, who were robbing passers-by, were accosted and shot by police in Mowlem and Kayole.

DISTRESS CALL

In Mowlem, police trailed suspects who had been reported robbing people in Maili Saba at 3.30pm. One suspect was gunned down while the other one escaped.

The Kayole incident happened in an area known as Step One. A total of five rounds of ammunition were recovered from the suspects gunned down during the two incidents.

Other guns were found in Soweto, Eastleigh’s Muratina Road, Riruta, Pangani’s Captain Mungai Road, Zimmermann, Makadara and Buruburu in the past two weeks.

In one incident in Kariobangi, a man called James Maina, 40, who was assaulting his girlfriend in her house, was gunned down when he shot at police officers who were responding to her distress call. A home-made pistol was found on him.

Mr Kinoti said the seized guns were capable of firing and killing and so the police were treating them as illegal guns.

BULLETS

Mr Kinoti said the home-made pistols are capable of discharging bullets.

He said the problem of home-made guns is not exclusive to Nairobi and that several cases had been reported in other parts of the country.

He said several other pending cases of robbery with violence and illegal possession of firearms are in court.

Last month, Flying Squad head Said Kiprotich said the guns are becoming more lethal. He urged the public to provide information about the bearers and manufacturers of these weapons.