By Standard Team

Outlawed Mungiki sect spokesman David Gitau Njuguna is dead.

Njuguna was shot dead by yet-to-be-identified assailants along Luthuli Avenue, Nairobi.

Three gunmen shot him twice at point blank range and escaped without stealing anything from him.

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The same gang, according to witnesses, had engaged him in an argument before they shot him twice in the neck and forehead.

Denounce Mungiki

A crowd at the scene where Mungiki spokesman Njuguna Gitau was killed along Luthuli Avenue, Nairobi, on Thursday. Photo: Stafford Ondego/Standard

Njuguna, a father of three, was shot inside an electronic shop where he tried to seek refuge from the assailants, who had chased him for about 50m. The shooting came days after the leader of the sect Maina Njenga said his life is in danger over his move to denounce Mungiki.

Witnesses at a shop said Njuguna and the killers argued a few metres away before they chased him there and shot him.

His body lay in a pool of blood next to a table of electronic equipment, clinging to a newspaper before police arrived to remove it at 4pm.

Police found a number of documents and about Sh1,000 in his pockets. The officers said Njuguna did not have identification documents at the time.

A witness Kassim Agesha said he heard Njuguna shouting while pleading with the assailants not to kill him before one of them pulled the trigger on him.

"He ran in here and clung onto the display table begging them not to kill him. But one of them shot him in the neck before the second one placed the gun on the forehead and pulled the trigger," said Mr Agesha.

Agesha added that one of the gunmen shot in the air once to scare the crowd before they ran on foot towards River Road. He said ten customers were in his shop, with six other attendants and they all lay on the floor when the gang struck.

"They seem to have come with him from far because he ran in while panting and pleading with them not to kill him."

On Thursday, Njenga termed as shocking the killing of Njuguna. He said he would record a statement with police over threats he had received over his life.

"I am at a loss for now because this comes at a time when people are threatening me over my move to abandon Mungiki and condemn it," he said on telephone.

Police arrived at the scene soon after the shooting and took Njuguna’s body to Kamukunji Police Station.

"We have launched investigations into this incident with a view of getting the killers," Central OCPD Richard Muguai said at the scene.

Impeccable police sources said preliminary investigations had shown Njuguna may have been killed by people known to him in an argument over money.