By CYRUS OMBATI
Nairobi, Kenya: A police officer attached to a senior Israeli envoy to Kenya was on Wednesday night shot dead in an attack near the official’s residence in Nairobi’s Muthangari area.
The General Service Unit officer was shot twice at close range.
The officer was on duty when guards at a roadblock near the house called him saying they had seen a gang of three exchange a gun.
Police and witnesses say the officer begun to search a member of the gang who was not armed giving room for the one who had a pistol to shoot him at close range in the 8.45 pm incident.
Apparently, one of the gunman had handed his accomplice a pistol as the guards manning the roadblock witnessed.
And after being informed, the officer rushed to the scene on foot alone and stopped the three about 250 meters away.
They complied before the GSU officer started to search them. It was then that the one who had a gun stepped aside and opened fire at him twice killing him on the spot.
Nairobi Area head of police Benson Kibue said the gang escaped on foot without stealing anything from the deceased.
“I think the gunmen were just passing the area. We cannot link the attack to the official but we are hunting down on the gunmen,” said Kibue.
He added the officer’s gun and other valuables were left intact as the thugs escaped.
It was after the gang had escaped that an alarm was raised. Senior police officers rushed to the scene and ordered an operation in the nearby Kangemi and Kawangware slums but no arrest was made.
Teams of police officers have since been mobilised to hunt down the killers establish the motive.
