A police officer attached to Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) was Monday night killed in a shootout with suspected robbers in Taveta town, Taita Taveta County.
The officer was with his colleagues when he was shot by a gunman linked to an earlier robbery in Mombasa that was caught on CCTV cameras.
He died at Taveta Sub-county Hospital, police said. The corporal was from Mombasa and belonged to a squad popularly known as Spiv that trails and arrests petty criminals.
The attacker has since been identified as Simon Kinyua Kamau, 35, who has a pending robbery with violence case in Mombasa. He is out on bond.
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DCI George Kinoti said the suspect was able to kill and harm because he had been released from jail where he belongs.
“He has killed an officer who was out to ensure the country is safe. We will hunt him,” said Kinoti.
The suspect was in the company of an accomplice.
Police said the officer had trailed the suspects from Mombasa and that he had also been working with police in Taveta to arrest them.
He was shot in the head and stomach and died on the spot. Police revealed after the suspects realized their accomplices had been arrested on Sunday, they took a bus headed for Nairobi and later alighted in Voi Town. It was then a team was dispatched to arrest them but the mission turned tragic.
The suspects are believed to have escaped to neighbouring Tanzania on a bodaboda, which was abandoned at the border.
The men are believed to be members of a notorious group behind a series of robberies in Mombasa town.
Five suspects were arrested in Mombasa on Sunday after CCTV footage captured a group of men robbing a woman of her handbag in Makande area.
The video clip captured three men walking past their victim at an M-Pesa shop before two of them turn on the woman brandishing a gun. They then jumped onto a motorbike and escaped.
Police identified the suspects as Brighton Naiya Manyala, Mohamed Hassan, Chris Odhiambo Omondi, Evans Munyoki Mburiro and Mutonyi Nzamba.
They appeared in court Monday and police were allowed to detain them for 14 days to complete investigations.
Police said they have increased operations in the region to deal with armed gangs operating there.
