Man survives first shooting, killed in hospital ward

Patients screamed in horror as two men stormed Mwingi Level Four Hospital and pumped bullets into a 27-year-old man who had just survived another shooting.

A horrified woman who was sitting next to her brother, Fredrick Ngandi Musyimi, watched as one of the gunmen coldly emptied bullets into the helpless patient, while another stood guard at the surgical ward’s door, his eyes never leaving bed number 3.

The man had been admitted to the ward’s left wing that accommodates about 15 patients.

The open ward has two rows of beds separated by a pathway. Musyimi, who was on a drip, was in bed number three. When The Standard visited the ward yesterday, he was still covered with a sheet drenched in blood.

The dramatic killing of the patient was executed by two men wearing heavy jackets. They stormed the ward and shot the sleeping patient in the stomach. He died on the spot.

His sister, who had rushed to the hospital from Nairobi after learning of his earlier shooting, watched in disbelief as life ebbed out of Musyimi during the 2.30am attack.

She recalled how Musyimi rolled from his hospital bed and fell on the floor, as other patients and their relatives took cover under beds.

The Standard has learnt that the assailants burst in and wasted no time in gunning him down.

“He was in a heavy jacket. He whipped out a pistol, shoved me aside and shot him several times. Then my brother shouted ‘this is one of the men who abducted me in Kitui, he has come to finish me,” the victim’s tearful sister said.

“I asked him why he was killing my brother. However, he continued shooting without uttering a word,” said the woman.

According to Ken Muriuki, a senior nurse at the hospital, Musyimi was brought in with six gunshot wounds by two policemen on Wednesday at 7.30pm. The officers said they found the man from Ukasi, along Mwingi-Garissa Highway, after he dragged himself from the bush. He had been shot and wounded.

“At least we expected a patient with gunshot wounds to be protected, but the officers who brought him in left, saying they had nothing to do with him,” said Muriuki.

Just before he was shot dead, Musyimi had told his sister that he was picked up at his Majengo home around 8am by four men who claimed to be police officers.

They did not say why they were arresting him. They bundled him into a waiting white car and blindfolded him before speeding off. The men drove all the way to Ukasi from Kitui town, about 120km away, where they detoured at Sosoma junction into a bush.

They tossed him out of the car, shot him in the head, left cheek and left ribs. Thinking he was dead, they took off.

Musyimi regained consciousness and dragged himself to the Mwingi-Garissa highway, where good Samaritans took him to Ukasi dispensary. Local police officers took him to Mwingi Level Four Hospital, some 50km away.

However, it seems his attackers got wind of his rescue and trailed him to the hospital.

Hospital sources said one hour after the man was admitted and the police had left, two men arrived and made inquiries about him. They asked the watchmen to tell them about the patient the police had just brought in. They claimed they wanted to visit him.

“We contacted Musyimi who declined to meet the strangers. He said he was not expecting any male visitors, only his sister,” said a guard.

By then, the two men had walked towards the surgical ward where Musyimi was admitted. When they were denied entry, the killers reluctantly moved away but did not leave the compound. They lurked around waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Musyimi’s sister arrived at around 11pm from Nairobi and was allowed in.

“He was very stable and we talked. He ate the food we had brought him as he recounted his ordeal,” said the sister, who was accompanied by a friend.

She and her friend relaxed on a bed next to Musyimi’s, thinking his brother was out of danger. But in the dead of night, the killers burst in—one stood at the door while the other, a stocky man donning a heavy jacket, briskly walked to Musyimi’s bed, surveyed the patient, drew a gun and pumped several bullets into his stomach before they fled.

Ms Agnes Kavata, who was looking after sick relative at a nearby bed said she saw the man walk towards Musyimi’s bed and then there was gunfire.

“We all went under the bed and took cover...It was a terrifying moment,” she said.

Mr Muriuki said the six nurses on duty tried to contact police officers at Mwingi Police Station but there was no response. The police took time and appeared more than one hour later. The patient had been killed and attackers escaped.

“The security in this hospital has been very lax. It is something we have consistently raised with the hospital administration but nothing has been done,” Muriuki added.

Musyimi’s elder brother Nicholas who works in Thika said his brother had no known enemies and wondered why people would want to kill him.

“He has never had any issue with the police. He was a struggling businessman. All we want are answers. We want an explanation on the brutal murder,” Nicholas said.

He said Musyimi hawked shoes and other merchandise in Kitui town for slightly over one year before he was killed.

He however told us that about three months ago, his brother told him about three strange men who appeared to be trailing him. They would pop into his operating areas within Kitui town and take strategic positions to study him.

“He however managed to shake them off and he never complained about anything else,” he said.

Another brother, Mukando, said he last saw Musyimi last Friday. “He had a gunshot wound in the ear, which looked like he was burnt. He told me he had been shot by a police officer after a robbery at Wikililye market, about three kilometres from Kitui town. I nursed him,” he said.

Back at home in Mwingi villagers recalled Musyimi’s troubled childhood and how he dropped out of Kitamwiki Primary School in Class Four. He later joined Kitulu Primary School and again dropped out due to indiscipline.

A neighbour recalled how he and his bother Maluki were chased by police last July after they were accused of a string of shop break-ins at Kathiaini. His brother was arrested by the public and was handed over to the police. However, Musyimi has been on the run even since.

Another relative, Mutunga Wambua, said: “He was admitted at Kitui District Level Hospital between March and April this year after he was stabbed in the stomach by unknown people. He did not wait to be discharged, he escaped from hospital.”

In Mwingi town, nobody seemed to remember Musyimi or what he had been hawking in Majengo. Area assistant chief Halima Abdi said she had no knowledge of him or the business he was involved in. She took the media round the estate but appeared not to know the deceased.

Yesterday, patients at the hospital appeared dazed after the chilling murder as the public and hospital staff conversed in low tones. Our efforts to find out from fellow hawkers in Kitui town what sort of a man Musyimi was bore no fruit as no one seemed to know him.

Police in Kitui said investigations have been launched. They said 17 empty cartridges of 9mm were collected from the scene of crime. The body was later moved to the hospital’s mortuary.

All senior police officer in Mwingi, including the OCS Mathews Abichi, OCPD Gerald Barasa and DCIO James Manuni were said to be away as all these was happening.

Kitui County Commissioner Boaz Cherotich led a team of top county security officers to Mwingi town later in the day but declined to talk to the journalists, saying it would jeopardise investigations.

Mwingi Central Deputy County Commissioner David Kiprono had earlier said he led a team of AP officers to the ward in early hours of the morning where they collected the spent cartridges.