Police clash with residents over insecurity

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI; KENYA: Anti-riot police on Monday morning clashed with tens of Dandora residents in Nairobi who are protesting increased incidents of insecurity.

The residents are protesting Sunday night’s killing of two people by armed thugs who were on a robbery spree.

The gang of three also shot and wounded one man in the leg. The two who were killed were robbed of their cash and other valuables.

Residents say the gang escaped aboard motorcycles, which were on standby.

Residents say the gang has been targeting them in the last days and want police to assure them there will be no more such attacks in the future.

The protesters later headed for Buruburu police station to complain there as anti-riot police watched from a distance but dispersed them.

Witnesses say the youths holding the demonstration are stoning motorists and robbing pedestrians. Other reports say two of the suspected thugs believed to be behind the attacks were early Monday morning killed by the residents.

Buruburu OCPD Hassan Barua who was in a meeting in Nairobi has been forced to leave to attend to the crisis.

A section of residents of Huruma estate in Nairobi on Sunday barricaded Juja Road to protest the killing of a businessman there by suspected thugs.

He was killed as he walked to his place of work within Kiamako area in the morning hours, witnesses and police said.

They barricaded Juja Road for a short while before police dispersed them using teargas canisters.

They also uprooted some kiosks in the area claiming they were housing criminals who are behind the attacks.

It took the arrival of anti-riot police led by Nairobi Area police boss Moses Ombati to restore calm in the area after they shot to the air and threw teargas canisters at the protestors who had blocked roads there.

One of the protestors claimed the attackers seem to target their community saying up to four people have been shot and wounded in the past three months alone in what seems to be systematic.

But police denied the claims saying the incidents are normal robberies being committed by local criminals who are out to get quick money.

Starehe OCPD Samuel Anampiu said police are looking for known criminals who are believed to be behind the attacks.

“The attacks are just normal but not targeting a particular community or group. We are looking for the gang behind them,” he said.

The incident in the area came a day after a similar one in which residents of Mathare slums torched more than 30 houses to protest the killing of one of them.

The slum dwellers were angered by the stabbing of one of them by unknown attackers on Friday night before they descended on shanties they claimed were housing the said attackers burning them.

The arsonists stood besides the burning houses and even stoned police and fire engines that arrived there to save the situation.