Transitional Authority official shot dead

By CYRUS OMBATI

NAIROBI; KENYA: Nairobi County Transitional Authority Coordinator was Monday morning shot dead in cold blood in an attack near his residence in Tena estate, Nairobi.

Police and witnesses say Eliud Baraza was walking from his residence at about 6 am when he was confronted by gunmen who demanded that he surrenders valuables he was carrying.

According to Buruburu police boss Hassan Barua, Mr Baraza was walking to where his driver was waiting for him when three gunmen who were waiting for him struck.

By the time the driver also arrived at the scene, the gang had shot him and grabbed a bag he had and drove off.

“It seems these are gunmen who knew him well and were waiting for him with a mission. There seems to have been a confrontation between the gang and the deceased before they shot him and escaped with whatever he had,” said Barua.

He added they are yet to know the nature of the valuables that he was carrying at the time of the attack. Barua said the driver had recorded a statement over the attack.

The police boss said they are yet to know the motive of the attack and that a major hunt on the killers was ongoing.

The Transitional Authority created the new positions in the devolved government structure, and the deceased was one of the officers appointed as transition co-ordinator in February this year for the Nairobi County.

 

The officials were drawn from the central government and local authorities, and were expected to set up key county structures to jumpstart the devolved government system.

 Meanwhile, a hawker died and a second one is in hospital after they were involved in a scuffle over operating space in Kamkunji area, Nairobi.

Both victims sustained stab wounds before one of them died on arrival in hospital. Police and witnesses say the two had been quarrelling over their space before they suddenly started to stab each other in public in the incident that happened at about 6 pm on Sunday.

The injured man is in hospital under police watch while the body was taken to the mortuary.

 And a night guard was on Monday morning shot and seriously wounded in a robbery on a residential house in Nairobi’s Spring Valley area.

The guard was on duty when a gang struck at about 3 am and tried to force its way into the compound which prompted him to raise alarm. It was then that the gang shot at him seriously wounding him in the thigh before they escaped on foot to unknown destination without stealing anything from the compound. The injured man is in hospital in a stable condition.