Gang kills Mpesa dealer in robbery

A woman was robbed of Sh70,000 and shot dead outside her home in Obama estate Kayole, Nairobi, at the weekend.

Ms Mary Nyamiru Kiiru had just closed her Mpesa shop and was walking to her house when she was attacked.

She was in company of her niece, Mercy Waithera, and when they reached the gate of their house they were accosted by two men, one armed with an AK47 rifle.

The two robbed her of her purse before shooting her on the neck. She died on the spot.

Her niece, 19, told the Nation that they did not see anyone as they approached the gate but immediately they wanted to open it, the gunmen emerged.

“I heard a gunshot and we both fell down. However, I did not know that they had shot my aunt on the neck,” she said.

After falling down, Mercy said, a tall man who was wielding an AK47 rifle searched the aunt while the other grabbed the purse before they escaped.

“I called my aunt but she never responded and I called my grandmother who was in the house,” she said. On checking they realised that Ms Kiiru had been shot on the neck and the bullet exited.

Nairobi area deputy police boss Moses Ombati said that the motive of the shooting was not immediately established but they were investigating.

“She never resisted and it is not clear why they killed her,” he said.

The shooting happens barely two days after an AK-47 wielding thugs exchanged fire with Mr Daniel Prastola, a Slovakian and the owner of a security firm based at the Village Market, in Kileleshwa.

Mr Ombati also said that in Embakasi police recovered a Tokalev pistol and arrested four suspects over a spate of attacks on residents.

The suspects are said to have terrorised Tassia residents and had been identified by them. There was no exchange of fire with police during the arrest.