NAIROBI, September 10 – A City businessman was shot dead by gangsters on Tuesday night in Nairobi’s Githurai estate.
Family members told the police that the scrap metal dealer was confronted in his compound by three gunmen as he prepared to get into his car.
They say his driver was reversing the car at about 10 pm when the gangsters struck. When the trader sensed danger, he reportedly dashed back to his house and headed straight to the bedroom with the gangsters hot on his heels.
They then shot at him and fled without stealing anything.
“It appeared they were out to kill him because they followed him to the house and shot,” a senior officer said.
Police said the trader was pronounced dead on arrival at Guru Nanak hospital.
Kasarani deputy Police chief Tom Mboya said cases of theft and carjacking incidents have been on the increase in Githurai and its surroundings in the recent past.
He attributed the increased cases to a group of thugs who operate in Githurai, Kasarani, Thome and Garden estates.
One of the gang members who was said to be notorious in robbery cases was shot dead on Monday night.
The gangster nick-named One Man Guitar was killed at a coffee plantation where police had laid an ambush for more than a week.
Police had received information that he was always spotted in the coffee plantation to retrieve his firearm in the evenings.
“He was a dangerous person. He could keep his pistol in the coffee plantation during the day and collect it the evenings,” Kasarani divisional Police chief Jasper Ombati said.
He was however, unlucky on Monday when undercover police officer laid wait at the coffee plantation until 8 pm when he showed up, accompanied by an accomplice who escaped.
Police said they are now looking for three other thugs who were still at large.
Two of them are believed to have been part of the killers of the city trader who was gunned down on Tuesday night.