New Police IG Orders Cops To Use Guns On Nairobi Thugs
He instructed police to use their firearm on anyone charged with committing a serious crime...
Marvin Chege 
Inspector General (IG) of Police, Japhet Koome, has issued a shooting order to police officers in a bid to end the menace of criminal gangs targeting Nairobi residents.
Speaking moments after being sworn in at the Supreme Court on Friday, November 11, Koome fired a warning shot at criminals while justifying the use of firearms on the gangs by the police.
He instructed police to use their firearm on anyone charged with committing a serious crime as well as those crooks who dare to rescue their comrades following arrest by a police officer.
"If anybody charged with committing a felony, murder, or rape attempts to escape, an officer can use a firearm.
"If an officer has arrested someone having committed a felony, then you attempt to rescue that person, the police can use their firearm too," Koome directed.
His directive came amidst a huge number of calls by Nairobi residents to urgently address the deteriorating security situation in the city, despite Nairobi Police Commander, James Mugera denying reports of a surge in criminal activity in the past few weeks.
The vice has even spread to the Nairobi Metropolitan area. On Wednesday, November 9, police foiled an armed robbery on a university student in Thika, Kiambu County by shooting dead a robbery with violence suspect.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Thika Technical Institute student was headed to his rented room when he was accosted by three armed thugs at Gatitu corner who ransacked his pockets, an action that prompted police officers to respond.
"Following the sudden attack, the victim only identified as Onyi let out high-pitched screams of distress, Wuuuui! Wuuuui! Wezi! Nisaidieni! (Thieves! Help!) prompting a quick response from the officers of the law who spotted a young man subdued on the ground by three machete-wielding thugs," the DCI stated.
"Immediately, the officers intervened by ordering the three to stop but their warnings fell on deaf ears, as one of the thugs reached for his privates and attempted to draw a firearm. But before his hand could leave the ‘armoury’, a single shot was fired to immobilise him, sending him sprawling on the ground."
Upon seeing one of their accomplices had been gunned down, the two remaining suspects abandoned their getaway motorbike and fled on foot. At the scene, police recovered the victim's phone which was in the deceased suspect's pocket, a sharp machete and a homemade firearm tucked in the thug’s genitals.
The student was rescued by the officers and escorted to his home while the suspect's body was moved to General Kago hospital mortuary pending identification.
The blue motorbike registration number KMDS 602K which the suspects were using was impounded and is currently at Thika police station as investigations aimed at arresting the rest of the suspects continued.
A fleet of boda bodas parked in Nairobi. /CAPITAL GROUP
![Raila Denied Access To Athi River Demolitions [VIDEO]](https://viraltea.co.ke/uploads/images/2023/10/image_380x226_652e6c60bda29.jpg){kind=small}
