Two guns, 99 bullets recovered at apartment fence in Nairobi

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI, KENYA: Police have recovered two guns with 99 bullets near a fence of a residential apartment in Kilimani area, Nairobi.

One of the two Ceska pistols that were recovered on Monday morning was stolen from a house at the apartment last Friday in a break in incident, police said.

They were found wrapped in a green paper bag and abandoned on the fence of the apartment by a guard who called police.

According to Kilimani police division boss Peter Katam, it remains a mystery on the source or owner of the other pistol and bullets.

Katam said one of the pistols had been legally issued to a businessman who is however out of the country.

Guards at the Delight Apartments reported unknown people broke into the businessman’s house on October 25 and vandalized the safe that had the weapon with 10 bullets before escaping.

Come Monday morning, police were called and informed there were guns abandoned near the entrance but now with 99 bullets.

“We do not know the source of the other weapon and bullets. It is a mystery that we are trying to unravel,” he said.

Katam said they intend to arrest and charge the businessman for leaving his gun in the house while traveling out of the country. He added the weapons could have caused much harm had they been used by criminals.

“The law requires all licensed gun holders to bring and leave their weapons at nearest police station for safe keeping whenever they are on trips outside the country. We will take action for his failures,” said Katam.

He added they have sent the weapons for ballistic tests to establish if they had been used in committing any crime in the city.

The recovery came weeks after police recovered three AK 47 rifles and 87 bullets hidden in a bush near the popular Karen Golf and Country Club in Nairobi.

Police said two of the rifles had a magazine loaded with 30 bullets each while one had 27 an indication the gunmen had spent three.

Authorities say there are between 550,000 to 680,000 small arms and light weapons in the wrong hands in the country.