An American missionary is recuperating at the Nairobi Hospital after he and his colleague were carjacked and shot by three armed gangsters on Monday night.

The gangsters shot the African Inland Church (AIC) missionary in the thigh after he hesitated to surrender his Subaru car which the robbers had intercepted within Golf Course Estate, Nairobi.

According to Kilimani Police boss Nemwel Mochache, the incident started in Eastleigh's 9th street when a man approached a taxi driver and hired him to take his purportedly sick mother to hospital from Kariokor Estate.

Mochache said in Kariokor, the man was joined by his two armed accomplices who bundled the driver into the back seat and commandeered the taxi to Golf Course Estate along Ngong Road.

The gangsters intercepted an Asian woman driving a Mitsubishi car which they drove for a short distance before it stopped because it had an anti-motor vehicle theft device.

The thugs then stopped the missionary , who was driving by, and ordered him to surrender his car.

However, before he could comply, the gangsters drew out their guns and shot him in the thigh, bundled him and his colleague out of the vehicle and drove off to an unknown destination.

The woman was also abandoned at the scene unharmed.

The Kilimani DCIO, Geoffrey Mwangi, who is leading investigations, said the missionary's vehicle has not been recovered.