KDF Doctor Shoots Boda Boda Rider After Dropping Daughter Home

A boda boda rider cheated death by a whisker on Thursday evening, July 14 after a man attached to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) whose daughter he had just dropped at Syokimau in Machakos County, fired at him in rage. 

Wycliffe Atendo, an online nduthi operator in Nairobi had received a request from a client to drop her at White house estate, in Syokimau, in a statement by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

Atendo picked up the client, a 21-year-old lady outside a pharmacy along Kimathi street and set off for the 20-kilometre journey. 

An image of a gun with bullets. /FILE

"The duo arrived at the agreed address and as the woman was about to pay him, a man quickly emerged from the gate and gave her a beating like a rented mule, before showing her into the compound. 

"As the nduthi man pondered his next move, the enraged man whipped out a firearm and fired at him instead, making him flee the scene for dear life," stated the DCI in part.

The rider reported the incident at Syokimau police station and the detectives from the agency responded swiftly.

They established that the man was a military doctor of the armed forces who was armed with a Glock pistol and 42 rounds of 9mm calibre. 

The man was arrested and handed over to military police for further action, in accordance with military discipline.

The experience of a shoot-to-kill for the first time as a KDF officer and the effect thereafter comes with its treacherous circumstances that force them to engage the enemy (perceived or actual) in a shootout.

Speaking to a local TV station on Friday, November 12, a former officer at the military group revealed that the duel comes with a lot of emotional effects to those taking the shots for the first time.

The shoot-to-kill order from the commander of the team carries with it immense trauma that leads to soldiers harbouring those intense emotions just like any other human being.

President Uhuru Kenyatta during a pass-out parade at the KDF's Recruits Training School in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County in October 2020. /PSCU

Some overcome and absorb such trauma with ease while others freeze for some time and may take longer to recover from the mental, emotional and psychological disturbance. 

"There is always a first time to everything. My first time was during the Sabaot Land Defense forces. I was the first person to be shot at for the first time. That shocks you, but with proper training and the right state of mind, a soldier is able to recover quickly.

"But the freeze time varies. Some take time to recover while others freeze faster. But soldiers, just like normal human beings, are wired to live a soft life, but it takes some tenacity for them to handle the trauma," he stated.