They came in combat uniforms, Kibera recount night of horror

Ahmed Musa points at a  bullet hole. He says the projectile was fired by police officers on Sunday night. [Beverlyne Musili, Standard]

Residents of Kibera, Nairobi, recounted their chilling stories of  armed ‘militants’ storming the slums in the dead of the night and opening fire.

It was an attack that appeared-well organised, but poorly-executed since word had gone round during the day that there would be a raid.

While Nairobi police boss Japheth Koome has exonerated his men from any blame, some residents claim the attackers came in police vehicles and wore combat uniforms.

Reporters visited the country’s largest informal settlement to get firsthand accounts from the residents, some who blame the attack on members of the banned Mungiki sect.

And this was not the first attack.

As many across the country went to bed, residents of Kibera were woken up at 11.30pm by gunshots.

They said their attackers were in combat uniforms similar to the General Service Unit's but were not from the paramilitary unit.

“They had overgrown dreadlocks that could not fit in police caps. Some of them had their dreads tied while others left them handing freely,” narrated Miriam Akinyi nursing a rubber bullet injury on her chest.

Akinyi was shot at her stall in Katwikira at 11pm on Saturday.

When The Standard  team met her, she was not shy to show the bandage covering her chest. Once white, it was now dirty and discoloured.

“It feels very itchy,” she tells us. “But I have never gone back for checkup. I have no money.”

Akinyi said on Sunday, the said gang came armed with pangas.

“Gunshots could be heard in the dead of night. Other residents pelted the roofs of their neighbours’ houses with stones.”

The only thing that saved us was a trench dug on your way to Kamkunji grounds. The trench, according to our contact was dug purposefully to make sure vehicles do not pass through.

No-go zone

“But they (police) even know. They cannot attempt to come past the rail and gain entrance into the villages. It is a no go zone even for them,” said a source.

At Kamkunji grounds where National Super Alliance leader had his first rally after the August 8 elections, the mood was quite tense.

A long electricity mast lay across the road that leads to the nearby village. This, apart from the dug trench are just some of the plans that had been put in place by the residents to make sure no intruder, including the police, gets access into the slums.