Exposed: Officers who shot woman dead at City Park in Nairobi

What you need to know:

  • According to the report, the incident happened on Sunday morning, at 10am, as the officers were conducting a foot patrol in the area.

  • It is not clear, however, why the two officers, attached to Makadara and Industrial Area, respectively, were on duty at Parklands— an area under the jurisdiction of Parklands Police Station.

Identities of the police officers who shot dead a woman and injured her companion in a car at City Park, Nairobi, can now be revealed.

A police report, seen by the Nation, indicates that Administration Police Constables William Kipkorir Chirchir and Godfrey Kipngehch Kirui discharged four and 11 bullets, respectively, from their AK47 rifles, killing Ms Janet Wangui Waiyaki and injuring Mr Benard Chege.

PATROL

According to the report, the incident happened on Sunday morning, at 10am, as the officers were conducting a foot patrol in the area.

It is not clear, however, why the two officers, attached to Makadara and Industrial Area, respectively, were on duty at Parklands— an area under the jurisdiction of Parklands Police Station.

The report reads that the officers were alerted by a security guard, identified as Eustance Mureithi, of the existence of a car that had been parked at the area for long hours.

“The guard alerted the officers that there was a suspicious motor vehicle parked within the park. The officers went and found a Toyota Fielder parked in the forested area with all windows closed.

“They knocked on the tinted windows but there was no response and all of a sudden, the motor vehicle sped off towards the road,” the report sent to the police headquarters by Parklands OCS Chief Inspector Moses Shikuku reads in part.

 The police report states that the vehicle was shot at by the two officers who had firearms of serial numbers 60034428 and 5901067, respectively.

“The vehicle then stopped and inside were a male and a female namely Bernard Chege, 26 years old and Janet Wangui Waiyaki aged 41 years old. They had gunshot wounds,” the report reads in part.

AK47

It states that the two were rushed to Avenue Hospital where the woman was pronounced dead, while the man was admitted.

The couple’s vehicle was towed to the Parklands Police Station.

After the incident, all the six officers who were involved in the operation, including those who did not shoot, had their firearms withdrawn. The firearms have been taken for ballistic examinations.

On Sunday, Mr Chege’s family took to social media to plead for well-wishers to donate blood for him, saying he bled a lot after the attack.

After the shooting on Sunday, Nairobi County Police Commander Joseph Ole Tito said the car appeared suspicious because it had stayed at the thicket for too long.

REACTIONS

“We are currently on high alert following reports of an impending Al-Shabaab attack during the Ramadhan period. These officers became overly reactive,” Mr Tito said, adding that the investigations into the incident had begun.

Kenyans on social media criticized the police officers for the shooting and called on the The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) to investigate and prosecute the officers involved.

“Kenyan policemen are trigger happy, they are not trained to arrest. A professional policeman will let a criminal escape knowing tomorrow he will arrest him and the arrest will help arrest more criminals,” @rumuruti said on Twitter.

Another userm, @Vioanne, posed; “Did the police identify themselves? Do the police know that a car can’t get far if the tyres are flat?? Are the police allowed to shoot car tyres, or just citizens??? Exactly whom did the police think they were/mistake them for?”