Nairobi, Kenya: A police officer was shot dead by colleagues who mistook him for an armed criminal in Mathare slums, Nairobi, over the weekend.
The officer attached to Traffic Headquarters in Nairobi was shot at close range by fellow officers in a bar after a false alarm on Saturday night, police said.
The victim, Constable Obadiah Chirchir, was in the bar with a colleague and other patrons when police who had been informed of "a gang in the bar with guns" stormed in.
Witnesses said the officers opened fire, killing Chirchir as other revellers ran for safety.
Chirchir, who was working with the Alcoblow breathalyser team, was armed at the time of the shooting. His seniors said his mistake was to go to the bar in civilian clothes while armed.
"There was an alarm went to police claiming there were gunmen in the bar, which prompted the unfortunate shooting," said Nairobi police boss Benson Kibue.
Meanwhile, a suspected thug was on Saturday night shot dead and three guns and 80 bullets recovered from him in Westlands, Nairobi. However, his two accomplices escaped on foot.
Police say an employee of UN offices in Nairobi was shot and wounded in the shooting.
Elsewhere, two women aged 65 and 45 were arrested and two guns, 233 rolls of bhang, two cameras and other valuables believed to have been stolen recovered in Shauri Moyo.
