The Nation (Nairobi)
Oliver Musembi And Dominic Wabala
2 July 2009
Nairobi — Police have shot dead eight gangsters in three separate incidents in Juja Town and in the city. Three of them were killed in Juja and police believe they were behind the recent murder of detectives in Athi River.
The shooting happened at Kalimoni sisal estate, three kilometres from Juja Town, after a chase by CID officers from Nairobi. Two AK-47 rifles and 12 rounds of ammunition were found on the gangsters.
Thika police commander Patrick Mwakio said the officers had been trailing some suspects since the fatal shooting of the detectives who stumbled on a robbery at a petrol station in Athi River last Friday.
He said the gangsters were also suspected to be behind the killing of a woman in Thika Town last weekend and a string of robberies and kidnappings in Nairobi and its environs.
Mr Mwakio said one of the guns recovered was from the slain officers and the other was believed to have been used in the Athi River attack.
In Nairobi, three carjackers were shot dead by a lone officer on General Waruinge Road in Pangani while two others were killed in Kasarani's Githurai Kimbo on Wednesday night.
In the first incident, a police officer was travelling in a matatu (public minivan) plying between the City Centre and Eastleigh at about 9pm when four of the passengers turned out to be gangsters.
Armed with a pistol, they commandeered the vehicle to Majengo where they started robbing passengers.
Kasarani head of police Jasper Ombati said the officer managed to shoot and kill three of the gangsters in a risky encounter in which three passengers were injured and taken to Kenyatta National Hospital for treatment.
In the second incident, police on patrol shot and killed two of a four-man gang that had been robbing Githurai Kimbo residents at about 11pm.
The shootings come as senior police officers met at Vigilance House to discuss the increasing cases of carjackings in Nairobi.
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