A female police officer from Kinyago Police Post in Dandora, Nairobi, is
reported to have shot innocent residents during a pursuit for robbers.
PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Gunshots suddenly rent the air, muting the more familiar sounds
of chirping birds on rooftops, their wiry claws scraping gratingly
across rusty surfaces of rows of tin shanties that make up the expansive
Dandora slum.
The repetitive clap of
bullets violently exiting heated gun muzzles like intermittent
thunder-strikes was loud enough to get Samuel Musili Mwenda, 21, out of
bed.
SHOT IN HEAD
Leaving
his bed at 6.30am on a Sunday was not his plan, but curiosity would
force him to climb out of its comfort and up a tree just so he could
have a clearer view of what was happening outside.
But
less than 10 minutes later, a female police officer would force him
down the tree, point a gun at him and shoot him once in the chest and
then in the head. He died sprawled in the dirt outside the tin shack he
once called home.
UNINVITED GUEST
What Samuel will never know is that, as he lay
bleeding in the dust, a family of three had also been shot alongside a
gangster on the run, who, after climbing up their roof to escape from
the police, became their uninvited guest when the rusty iron sheet caved
in, bringing a hail of bullets that eliminated the fugitive and his
‘host’.
Police reports to the media
indicated that all six were armed gangsters who had stolen a motorcycle
registration number KMEL 650F from a boda boda rider and gang-raped his
pillion passenger in Lucky Summer at 2.30am.
HOME-MADE PISTOLS
Buruburu
divisional police boss Geoffrey Maiyek would later tell the media that
the operator contacted the owner of the motorcycle, who then linked up
the police with the tracking company.
“The
police officers traced the motorcycle to Gitwamba in Dandora. They
encountered the suspected gangsters and a shoot-out ensued,” he said.
He
claimed that the two victims — the boda boda rider and the raped woman —
had positively identified the six suspects and that, after police had
shot them, three home-made pistols capable of firing together with
rounds of ammunition were recovered from the dead men.
ABANDONED MOTORCYCLE
However,
witnesses said police ambushed two people on the stolen motorbike at
Kifarage, Dandora Phase 4, but the gangsters sped away when ordered to
stop.
“When they did not stop, the
police officers shot one of them, the one who was on the pillion. The
other suspect, who was riding the motorcycle, rode into a corner and
then abandoned the motorcycle and ran away,” a witness, Mr Peter Irungu
said.
ORDERED OUT
He
said the suspect climbed up the roof of a house in a bid to escape, but
it caved in. The officers then descended on the house and ordered
everyone out, witnesses said. They found three other occupants, who had
been preparing to go to church: David Kariuki Maina, 38, and his nephews
Peter Mwangi, 29, and John Kamau, 21.
Peter,
according to David’s wife Joyce Wanjiru, was a student at Kisii
University, while his younger brother, John, was set to start his KCSE
exams on Monday at Murang’a Secondary School. He was to travel back to
Murang'a later that day.
TWO STUDENTS
“Their
mother died three months ago and, since they were students, they have
been staying with us whenever the schools close. Peter had come to ask
for school fees because his school wanted arrears cleared before the
start of exams,” Ms Wanjiru said.
On
the day of the shooting, she said, she had gone away with her two
children and was planning to go to her husband’s house later that day.
FEMALE CONSTABLE
Josephine
Kathini, who is the grandmother of Samuel Musili Mwendwa, said her
grandson too was planning to sit for his KCSE examinations at Dandora
Secondary School.
“His mother died
two years ago and, since then, I have been taking care of him and his
sister. He was not a criminal. He did not have a gun contrary to what
the police are saying,” she said.
Residents identified the female police officer responsible for the shootings that morning as a constable at Kinyago Police Post.
COMMOTION
“She
started by shooting the suspect at David’s house and when David and his
nephews tried to explain how the suspect found his way into their
house, she also shot them. The whole team of officers and a crowd that
gathered because of the commotion moved to the tree where Samuel was.
They
forced him down before the female officer shot him in the chest. When
he tried to escape, she shot him in the head, a Dandora Community Centre
official said.
Human rights organisations and the
Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa), yesterday spent the
better part of the day interrogating the families and their neighbours.
In a statement to the media, Ipoa said it was looking into the matter.
POLICE OVERSIGHT
It
said that it had “launched independent investigations into the
incidents with a view of unravelling the circumstances that led to the
fatal shootings and, more particularly, whether the police officers were
justified in the use of their firearms.”
Ipoa
head of communications, Mr Dennis Oketch said that if found culpable,
the responsible officers would face the full force of the law. The
International Justice Mission praised Ipoa for investigating deaths of
18 people through police action in separate incidents, including the
latest cases.
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