Police question Nakumatt staff over auditor’s killing

Corporate News

The shattered window of a vehicle belonging to Nakumatt Internal Audit Manager James Karanja Maina after he was shot dead by gunmen on May 8, 2015. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By NATION and BDAfrica.com REPORTERS

In Summary

• Mr Maina’s colleagues at Nakumatt, who were still shaken by the incident, said the young manager was calm during the day.
• Mr Langat said they interrogated some employees and other managers in an effort to determine a motive for the auditor’s killing.

Police on Friday morning questioned Nakumatt Supermarkets employees over the shooting death of one of the company’s senior managers a day earlier.

Detectives from the Makadara Divisional Crime Investigation Office and OCPD Nehemiah Langat were at Nakumatt headquarters off Mombasa Road.

Mr Langat said they interrogated some employees and other managers, saying: “We believe that they can… tell us a number of things that might help us trace the culprits. We are also trying to establish his last communications.”

Police identified the manager as James Karanja Maina. He was shot twice in the head and once in the chest shortly after leaving the company’s offices at about 5pm.

He was the Group Internal Auditor, having only held the position since February last year when he joined the firm from Bolloré Africa Logistics.

Mr Langat said the gunmen, who were on a motorcycle, attacked on a narrow access road near Panari hotel and rode towards Mombasa Road after the shooting without stealing anything.

“We found three spent cartridges on the scene. His phone and wallet were in the car and to me, (it seems) if the killers were robbers, they would have taken his belongings easily,” Mr Langat said.

Mr Maina’s colleagues at Nakumatt, who were still shaken by the incident, said the young manager showed no signs of distress during the day.

“He was a very young and hardworking, brilliant lawyer and accountant,” said one colleague. “We are very saddened by his loss.”