Standard Team
17 March 2007
Nairobi — Police appeared to enforce Internal security minister John Michuki's shoot-to-kill order even before the ink dried up on the writ.
It was a killing fiesta as five suspected gangsters were felled even as rights groups criticised the order, saying it gave the law enforcers the powers of the investigator, prosecutor, jury and judge.
Nairobi, where the order was given Thursday, was the theatre of the five killings, including the felling of two fleeing suspects who had been subdued by the public. The suspects who were reportedly carrying guns may not have taken Michuki seriously when he spoke at Uhuru Gardens, where over 8,000 illegal firearms were destroyed.
Police shot dead two suspected gangsters who had been apprehended and disarmed by wananchi at the Kariokor Jua Kali garage.
Three others were killed in Eastleigh and River Road, after botched robberies. The Kariokor shootings illustrated the gravity of the ministerial order that came with the revelation there were proposals for the amendment of the Firearms Act to make possession of unlicensed firearms a capital offence just like murder and robbery with violence.
Michuki's message was blunt: "An illegal weapon in the hands of a criminal has no other purpose than to kill an innocent person. It is therefore justifiable for the law enforcers to take equal measure against such person."
Chilling execution
The two gangsters shot at close range were part of a three-man gang that had robbed a warehouse near the old OTC Bus Station, and then disappeared towards Kariokor, with police pursuing.
Police lost their trail in the labyrinth of the jua kali garages, but the artisans seized and disarmed them.
Officers who had slowed down arrived at the scene about ten minutes later to find the two suspects pinned to the ground by a mob and their guns next to them.
A third suspect made good his escape. The officers wasted no time with the subdued suspects, shooting them instantly on their heads.
Witnesses who watched the chilling execution later said the suspects were subdued when they were shot.
"We caught one of the gangsters and we grabbed his gun. Police arrived about ten minutes later and shot him," said Mr Francis Kilei, one of those who had wrestled down the suspects.
Mr George Mbugua said police were called after residents had apprehended the suspects. "They did not have the guns on their hands when the police arrived," he said.
Witnesses said the three men, including the one who escaped, were in their 20s. A jua kali mechanic said on arriving two of the suspects who looked terrified hid in one of the garages where artisans pounced on them.
"We struggled with him to the ground and disarmed him before police arrived," said another witness.
Central Division police chief Mr Tito Kilonzi later said: "The public spotted the criminals and raised an alarm. One of them drew a pistol and shot at the officers before they were killed."
He said police recovered a pistol and one round of ammunition after the shooting in the Kariokor area.
They were said to have been part of a three-man gang that had earlier attempted to raid a warehouse in the city centre. He said the police had been trailing them when wananchi joined the chase. In the other incidents, police in River Road shot dead a suspect after three escaping gunmen bumped onto a patrol car as they fled from a robbery scene.
Witnesses said three thugs had robbed a mobile phone shop along Latema Road some money and were escaping on foot when police killed one of them.
Police killed one of the suspects and recovered a pistol loaded with three bullets.
The second incident took place in Eastleigh, Section II, where police killed two gunmen in yet another failed robbery.
Police said the suspects were in a group of four and had attacked a businessman. Two others escaped on foot, police said.
The shootings took place hours after gunmen sprayed bullets on a police car shattering its windows. Fleeing gunmen shot at the officers near Pangani Police Station, shattering the car windows, carjacking three motorists as they escaped.
In the Thursday incident, a middle-aged pedestrian was shot and wounded in the exchange.
Police and witnesses said the thugs who were armed with AK-47 riffles were in a small car when they spotted the Peugeot police car near the Muranga Road-Park Road junction.
A chase then ensued taking the officers and the five gunmen through the station, and ending up in Eastleigh.
Kilonzi said it was here that a stray bullet hit a woman. One of the thugs who had bullet wounds was arrested.
In Hurlingham, three gunmen on Friday morning robbed a businessman of Sh1.5 million in his house before escaping.
Witnesses said the thugs went to the victim's house along Chaka Road, posing as his visitors before striking at about 4pm. They then escaped in a get-away car.
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