Trader shot dead in crime wave

A relative looks at Range Rover sport car parked at industrial area police station the late Daniel Kyalo Mwanzia was driving when he was shot dead at South B golden gate estate. Photo/ANTHONY OMUYA  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By FRED MUKINDA fmukinda@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, March 23  2013 at  00:30

A businessman was shot dead as he drove through a residential estate in Nairobi’s South B area, the latest victim of spiralling crime in the city.

Mr Daniel Kyalo Mwanzia, 40, was shot in the head and lost control of his vehicle which hit a wall.

The shooting happened at the entrance of Golden Gate Estate, where an armed gang had been waylaying motorists at around 6pm on Thursday.

Ms Monicah Mbugua saw the horrific shooting. She had been forced to stop her car by the gangsters a minute earlier.

She arrived at the gate and was stopped by the three men armed with pistols who robbed her of a cell phone and a Samsung tablet.

Mr Mwanzia’s vehicle arrived as the robbers ransacked her car and one of them waved him down while pointing a pistol.

“They ordered him to stop but he failed to do so. He was shot in the head. He was rushed to the Mater hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” says a police report that cites Ms Mbugua’s account.

Ms Stella Njeru, who was riding with the deceased, sustained injuries in the stomach.

Mr Mwanzia’s damaged car, a Range Rover, was towed to Industrial Area police station.

Makadara police commander Moturi Atuti said: “We do not know the motive of the killing but probably because he failed to stop. But we are also considering the fact that the gangsters escaped without taking away anything from the car yet it stopped about 10 metres away.”

Police found Sh50,000, a laptop and mobile phone handsets in the vehicle.

Mr Mwanzia was well known in Machakos where he was a businessman and his death is the latest in a spate of violent robberies that have hit the city in the last few weeks.

Separately, police shot dead a man they described as a robbery suspect minutes before midnight in the city’s Huruma area.

Two other people – Griba Shisima and Ms Jeniffer Aichu — sustained bullet wounds during the incident at Mathare 10. Police said they were hit by stray bullets.

A police report showed that the officers involved were on patrol when they rushed to the area to arrest four men who were said to be armed muggers. A homemade gun and a knife were found on the killed man.

In a separate incident, police officers rescued Mr Samuel Kibet from gangsters and shot one of them dead in the city centre at 1.30 am yesterday. He sustained an injury in the head. The others escaped towards Lower Kirinyaga Road.

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