Police kill two suspected thugs in Nairobi

By CYRUS OMBATI

NAIROBI, KENYA: Two suspected thugs were on Wednesday morning killed in a police shooting incident behind Kimathi House on Kimathi Street and two handcuffs recovered from them.

Police and witnesses said two others managed to escape on foot in the 9.30 am incident after engaging the plain clothes officers in a shootout.

A police walkie-talkie was also found on them.

The men are believed to be part of a gang that has been terrorising city residents and specially those who withdraw cash from banks, police said.

According to Central OCPD Patrick Oduma, the two were part of the gang that has been impersonating as police officers while extorting money from unsuspecting city residents.

“We also recovered a fake police identification document from one of them,” said Odum as he displayed it.

A guard at the scene said the four men had arrived in a salon car and parked it about 70 meters away from the nearby Barclays Bank, Moi Avenu branch.

“It was then that undercover police approached them before one of the thugs also drew out a gun and shot in the air, prompting a police officer to grab his accomplice using him as a human shield as gunshot rent the air,” said the guard.

The guard said two of the gunmen managed to run away as the officers took cover. Two others were killed next to a salon car. The car was also damaged by the bullets.

Cases in which people posing as police officers have been waylaying and robbing customers from banks have been on the increase.

The incident came a day after gunmen shot and wounded a woman as they escaped from a failed robbery incident on Tuesday afternoon along Mama Ngina Street, Nairobi.

The woman was hit in the cheek by a stray bullet fired by the gang as they escaped from a shop opposite Hilton Hotel.