NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 24 – Five suspected gangsters were shot dead in a dramatic shoot-out with police officers in Buru Buru on Wednesday.
Police said they had trailed the suspects from Jogoo Road after learning that they planned to raid a supermarket at the Buru Buru shopping centre.
“We got information that these young men were going to commit a robbery. But when they were challenged to stop, they started firing at our officers while speeding off,” Buru Buru police Chief Hassan Barua said.
The gunmen were travelling in a white saloon car and none of them survived.
“All of them have been gunned down. It is a very dangerous group because some of them are known criminals,” Mr Barua added.
He said three pistols and 50 handcuffs had been recovered from them.
A witness told Capital News that he just heard gunshots before two men jumped out of a car and attempted to escape while shooting.
“There was heavy gunfire. I only saw two men jump out of the moving vehicle but they were felled just metres away… they could not make it because the police car was just behind them,” the witness who only identified himself as Sam said.
Police officers were using an unmarked car and were in civilian clothes when they struck.
The slain men lay less than five metres from one another and had their heads blown up with bullets.
“You can see they are all young men, but they have really troubled us in this city,” one police officer said at the scene.
Nairobi Provincial Police chief Antony Kibuchi said the slain men were wanted for a series of robberies committed, mainly in the Eastlands part of the city.
One of them is said to have been released from jail last year after being convicted of a robbery with violence offence.
In a separate incident, police said they had launched an investigation into the murder of a boda boda rider whose body was found on a footpath within Mihang’o area in Kayole.
The body had deep cuts from a machete and lay beside a helmet.
Police suspect the man may have been killed after being hired by a gunman who also fled with his motorcycle.
No suspect had been arrested over the murder by Wednesday afternoon.
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