Eastleigh family’s anguish after police killed son who was being mugged

Michael Nyayo Mbaluka who was killed by police in mistaken identity

Nairobi County: A family is mourning after their son who was being mugged was shot dead by police in a mistaken identity incident in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area.

Michael Nyayo Mbaluka, 27, was shot once in the chest as he approached police officers who were on patrol after he had been mugged by two men along Third Street on Saturday morning.

Police also killed one of the muggers while the other escaped with a gunshot wound.  Paul Mutua Wambua, Nyayo’s cousin who witnessed the shooting, said Nyayo was on his way home when he was attacked by two men. Mutua, a security guard, hosted Nyayo at his house in Eastleigh and they had just parted ways at 12:30am, as he (Mutua) waited to board a matatu to his workplace. Moments later, Mutua said he heard Nyayo screaming and he rushed to his rescue where he found two men robbing him. “I fought back the muggers as we screamed for help,” said Mutua. “Our screams attracted the officers, who also rushed to the scene. One of them asked what was going on but before I could explain, he opened the trigger and shot one of the attackers,” Mutua explains. Nyayo on hearing the gunfire, started running towards their house.

PRIVATE CAR

“I called him back and as he walked towards the officers one of them shot and killed him instantly,” recalls Mutua. Nyayo’s body which is now lying at City Mortuary as his family make plans for his funeral has no stab wounds. Mutua then went to Pangani Police Station to report what had transpired, where upon narrating the ordeal was told there was no police vehicle, he, therefore, hired a private car to the scene . Nyayo, the second born in a family of four had just completed a diploma course in Tourism Management at Moi University.

“It is sad that law enforcers, mandated to protect Kenyans killed my son as he sought for their protection. Whoever did this must be punished,” said Nyayo’s distraught mother, Joyce Kaswii Kathukya.

Starehe OCPD Baraza Wabomba pledged to investigate the incident and ensure justice prevails.  “We got information that those killed we muggers but we will investigate and take appropriate action,” said Wabomba. The shooting came at a time when a report showed that over 60 per cent of about 1,800 people killed in gun-related incidents in the last five years were shot by police.

This means that you are more likely to be shot dead by a police officer than a robber. Thugs killed only 13.9 per cent (135) of the 1,873 victims between 2009 and last year, says the report by Independent Medico Legal unit (IMLU).

IMLU implicated law enforcement officers as the as major cause of homicides and suicides in the country attributing them to shooting 67 per cent of the 1,873 victims who died due to gun related incidences in the last five years.

According to the report, police do not record their reason for shooting or the circumstances under which they shoot.