7 KILLED

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 22 - Seven suspected gangsters were fatally shot in separate robbery incidents in Nairobi on Tuesday and three pistols recovered.

Five of them were gunned down at about 1pm, moments after they hijacked an oil tanker that was delivering petroleum at Mwiki.

The driver and loader of the tanker told police that they were first blocked by a saloon car and beaten up, before they were thrown out by the gangsters who drove the tanker towards Embakasi.

“When we received the information, we immediately mobilised our officers and set up roadblocks. They finally caught up with the gangsters near the General Service Unit Training School where they engaged our officers in a shootout,” Nairobi Provincial Police Chief Antony Kibuchi said.

“Unfortunately, five of them have been killed during an exchange of fire with our officers and as you can see we have been able to recover this tanker and another saloon car they had stolen earlier,” he added.

The gunmen were killed less than 200 meters from the tightly guarded GSU Training School as they attempted to escape through a by-pass that is under construction.

Mr Kibuchi said the driver and loader of the tanker were being treated in hospital. They were in a stable condition.

He said they had recovered a pistol, pair of handcuffs and a document showing one of them to be a member of a newly established youth movement, with strong ties with the outlawed Mungiki sect.

Scenes of Crime detectives said they would rely on copies of driving licenses found on two of them to ascertain their identities and ascertain if they were linked to previous offences.

On Monday night, police said they had killed two other gunmen in Kayole and Kiamumbi slum.

In Kayole, police laid ambush on a gang of eight men believed to be members of the outlawed Mungiki sect at a popular restaurant.

Police said one of them was killed when he whipped out a pistol and attempted to shoot at them before his colleagues were promptly arrested.

The suspects were being held at the Kayole police station on Tuesday as police finalised investigations to arraign them in court.

“They are dangerous criminals… we already have charges to prefer on some of them because they are people we have been looking for,” Mr Kibuchi said.

Another suspected robber was gunned down in Kiamumbi slums near the Kamiti Maximum Prison after he had carjacked a motorist but his accomplices managed to escape.

Mr Kibuchi said he had intensified the war against crime and urged the public to volunteer information.

“The war has just begun, we are not going to relent and I am happy because we have the goodwill from the public,” he said.