Man who snatched police firearm in Kisumu shooting spree identified

The 25-year-old Ambrose Odero Owino now deceased is believed to have been the man behind the broad daylight attack. [Courtesy]

The identity of the mastermind of Kisumu’s shooting incident weeks ago and whose remains have been lying at a Kisumu morgue has finally been established.

The 25-year-old Ambrose Odero Owino now deceased is believed to have been the man behind the broad daylight attack.

Odero attended Sengere Secondary School in Siaya and scored a B (minus) in his KCSE examinations in 2016.

The DCI visited the school and confirmed that he was a student there where he had emerged 7th best candidate in the school when he sat for his national examinations.

Odero, who died after being subjected to mob justice, snatched a firearm from a traffic Police Officer on duty, opened fire indiscriminately killing two people on the spot besides injuring several others in Kisumu, two weeks ago.

The family identified his body today, after detectives seeking to find out his identity published an appeal on the Director of Criminal Investigations Social media pages.

DCI report says the culprit has never applied for the National Identity Card.

According to Odero’s kin, soon after completing his secondary school education, he received a letter of admission to join Maseno University, but they could not afford to raise the required school fees to secure his admission.

Therefore, Odero left Siaya for Kisumu in search of greener pastures, where his aunt secured him employment at Foam Mattresses Ltd.

Police reports further says that for the deceased to seek employment he needed to have an identity card and as detectives have finally discovered, Odero scanned an identity card belonging to one Fredrick Oduor Odera and replaced Odera’s names with his.

"He went further to superimpose his image on Odera’s, made a copy, presented it to his prospective employer. He got the job. But his employment was short-lived since towards the end of 2019, every employee was asked to produce his or her original identity cards, in an exercise that was spearheaded by the National Employment Authority."

Investigations reveal that Odero knew he did not have an identity card and therefore absconded duty leading to his dismissal.

Detectives obtained a copy of his dismissal letter from Jokali Handling Services, a human resource solutions company, which Foam Mattresses had contracted to offer human resource services.

 In the dismissal letter dated February 2, 2020, written by Dennis Ambeva Ludenyo, Jokali’s operations manager, Odero was relieved off his duties for failure to produce his personal documents as ordered by the National Employment Authority.

“Your disappearance qualifies you to an employee who has deserted his work,” read part of the letter.

Detectives are currently investigating the whereabouts of Odero since February last year when he was shown sacked, until the day he staged the Kisumu shooting incident.

Consequently, detectives are seeking to establish how and where he acquired the weapon handling skills that he displayed and who may have been accomplices.

Odero had snatched a fire arm from a traffic police on duty at Kisumu bus terminus and opened fire, injuring four people in the process.

He was however not lucky as a mob attacked hm and beat him to death.