Gunman kills businessman in broad daylight in Juja
Policeman holding gun
Mystery surrounds the killing in broad daylight of a businessman who was Saturday afternoon shot while in the company of nine directors of a Juja-based firm known as Ndarugo Plantation 1960 Limited.
Sudhir Shah, 66, was sprayed with bullets by a gunman riding a motorcycle just a few minutes after he, together with other directors, concluded a meeting at company’s offices and later made a stop-over for a chat when the gunmen struck.
In his company was Mr Francis Michuki — son of former Internal Security minister John Michuki — one of the directors of the company, and whose bodyguard was armed when the attack happened, a police report indicates.
"They arrived at the said company and made some official discussions in the office for a while and later one of them left driving slowly outside the office compound and all stopped and parked their vehicles aside next to a coffee plantation close distance to the Thika superhighway. While conversing, they were accosted by two suspects who came riding a motorcycle of unknown registration number,” the report adds.
During the incident that happened around 2pm on Saturday, one of the attackers, who was armed with a pistol, is said to have ordered all the directors to lie down on the ground but Mr Michuki’s driver defied the orders and took cover and started firing at the gunmen.
Dead on arrival
In the process, he told police, the two gunman badly injured Mr Shah and he was rushed to Thika Central Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
"One of the suspects was armed with a pistol and ordered everyone to lie down on the ground. They lied as ordered but the officer defied the order after seeing one of the [was] suspects armed with a pistol. He moved some distance away, took cover and started firing at the suspects who in turn responded by firing back. A fierce exchange of fire ensued and the suspects were overwhelmed and sped off without robbing the victims. Scene was visited by Juja sub-county police commander, Ocs Witeithie and officers from DCI Juja who established that one of the directors of Indian origin namely Sudhir Shah aged 66 years old was shot and was bleeding from the chest,’’ police said.
Police officers handling the matter told the Nation that they are treating the incident with a lot of suspicion, given that some other directors of the company were armed when the incident happened and no other person fired back at the gunmen yet they were dealing with a lone gunman.
Strange
Another detective conversant with the matter told the Nation that it was strange that the gunman targeted only one person in the shootout given no other director was injured.
"It is strange and suspicious as it appears but I don't want to comment about the issue but there is more than [meets the eye],’’ the detective told the Nation without wanting to be named as he is not allowed to comment about the issue on behalf of his boss.
Juja Sub-County DCIO Richard Mwaura said he could not comment about the incident since it is being handled by DCI headquarters.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters Head of Investigations John Gachomo who visited the scene Sunday told reporters that investigations into the matter had commenced but no arrests had been made.
"Investigations are ongoing to unearth what exactly transpired and to bring the suspects to face the law,” he told reporters.
