National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi's guards shoot gangster dead, recover pistol in Westlands

Police officers attached to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi's security detail on Sunday shot dead a suspected thug and recovered a pistol in Westlands, Nairobi.

The two constables were driving in one of the Speaker's official cars along Westlands Road when they spotted three men armed with pistols on a motorcycle robbing a pedestrian. Police said there had been complaints of attacks in the area by gunmen on motorbikes and efforts to trace them were ongoing.

According to police, the officers killed one of the suspects but their two accomplices escaped. Muturi was not in the convoy at the time.

And as the two escaped, one of them shot and shattered the rear windscreen of the Speaker's car. The car was later taken to Parklands Police Station for processing and release.

"No injury was reported on the side of the police and we are looking for the other men who escaped," Nairobi police boss Benson Kibue said.

According to police, an Ekol P29 pistol loaded with four bullets was found on the slain gunman.

Elsewhere, a suspected thug was on Sunday night shot dead and a home-made gun recovered in a botched robbery in Nairobi's Kibera slums.

The suspect was in the company of three others and were attacking and robbing residents when the alarm was raised, police said.

The accomplices escaped on foot. The slain gunman was on the police list of most wanted criminals over robberies in the area.

And a woman was shot and wounded in an attempted robbery on an Mpesa shop in Kosovo, Mathare in Nairobi.

The woman was hit in the hand as she fought off a gang that had attacked her.

Police say she alerted other residents who responded, prompting the thugs to shoot at her as they escaped. No arrest has been made so far. The gang is said to have escaped without stealing anything from the woman who is in hospital.

Money transfer

Meanwhile, a police officer attached to Industrial Area Police Station was at the weekend arrested on suspicion of being involved in armed crime in Lang'ata and Karen.

And robberies on mobile money transfer facilities rocked Machakos town on Sunday, leaving two suspects critically injured and a large amount of money stolen.

Three robbers armed with a pistol staged the first raid at an MPesa shop and ordered everyone to lie down in the facility which is between two Salons. They made away with Sh72,000, according to the shop's owner, Joshua Wambua.

Mr Wambua and neighbouring shop owners raised the alarm and wananchi intercepted the thugs near Mulu Mutisya Gardens, where they had left a motorcycle. They got hold of one but the other two fled using the motorcycle.

After realising that he was under siege, the robber threw the cash in the air, prompting wananchi to scramble for it. The suspected thug was beaten up senseless before police arrived and took him to the hospital.

Another raid was staged in another MPesa shop about twenty metres away from the first one when two men raided it but after taking away the unknown amount of money, the public got hold of one and beat him unconscious as his accomplice escaped.