City police scale up war on criminals using motorbikes to terrorise residents

Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]

Police in Nairobi have scaled up the war against criminals using motorbikes to terrorise residents.

On Tuesday night, police shot dead a suspect, arrested two, and recovered three firearms and several rounds of ammunition.

The crackdown was intensified following last week's killing of David Mayaka, a Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer based in Makadara sub-county. He was shot dead by three gunmen riding on a motorbike.

Mayaka, who was in the company of his wife, Hellen Kemunto, had stopped to change a flat tyre in Mihango, near Hurlingham, when he was accosted at around 10pm. The officer died while being rushed to the hospital while his wife sustained a gunshot wound to the thigh.

Following the killing, an operation led by sleuths from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau nabbed a suspect, Alex Wanjiru, in Pangani over links to the murder.

Police said Wanjiru was picked up from his grandmother's home in Ruthingiti, Kikuyu sub-county, where a motorbike suspected to have been used by the three gangsters as a getaway was recovered.

The 23-year-old and his two accomplices were tracked down following a tipoff that they were waylaying unsuspecting members of the public in Pangani area.

According to Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei, the gang engaged the police in a shootout before one of the suspects was gunned down. A Ceska pistol, a knife and a motorcycle were recovered at the scene.

In Mukuru Kware, Ronald Juma, a former Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officer, was arrested after an HK 21 rifle, 26 rounds of ammunition and a pair of binoculars were found in his possession.

"He is a former KDF officer who was using a motorbike to attack his victims. He is in custody and being processed as investigations continue," said Bungei.