Police in Kayole are investigating an incident where a businessman was shot dead by gangsters at his shop in Mihang’o shopping centre, Nairobi, on Monday.
Dickson Githinji, 42, popularly known to neighbours as Diki, was pronounced dead on arrival at Komarock Modern Hospital in Utawala minutes after he was shot inside his shop. He ran a family shop and an M-Pesa business.
The incident according to a occurred at around 9.30 pm, 30 minutes to curfew.
DCI homicide detectives visited the scene accompanied by Mihang’o OCS Isiah Bisengi on Tuesday.
Githinji’s body was moved to Kenyatta University hospital mortuary awaiting a postmortem on Thursday.
Neighbours who witnessed the incident told reporters that three armed thugs killed the businessman; he was shot at close range after he failed to handover cash to one of the gangsters.
“I was buying cakes for restock from a supplier inside my shop when I heard a bullet sound emanating from the deceased’s shop. I remained inside the shop while the person who was selling me cakes ran for his dear life,” one of the witnesses told the Star at the scene.
The woman who runs a shop said her neighbour was attacked by three thugs, one who shot him went inside the shop alone while the second one kept watch outside the building, the third one, a rider, was waiting on a standby motorbike.
The three escaped on the waiting motorbike.
The woman said she never suspected the three were thugs even when she noticed the second man who suspiciously waited outside the deceased's shop. The shop is located on the ground floor of a one storey building a few metres off Kigwathi road in Mihango old shopping centre.
“I didn’t know what was happening, there was a woman who had gone to the shop to buy something. I heard the deceased crying after the thugs escaped on a waiting motorcycle,” she said.
Neighbours said they heard one bullet sbeing fired. The motorcycle’s registration number was concealed according to witnesses.
One of the deceased’s close friends Susan Wathira said Githinji was a generous man. He is survived by a widow and three children.
“His killers shot him from behind after he declined to give them money that they had demanded for. The woman who was with Githinji inside the shop during the incident complied by lying on her belly and was spared,” Wathira said.
She spoke to reporters outside the deceased’s home where relatives, neighbours and friends had met for burial arrangements.
Wathira said the thugs escaped with over Sh100,000 in cash, airtime scratch cards and a mobile phone used to operate M-Pesa transactions. The deceased’s personal mobile phone was found by relatives on the shop floor.
Residents of Mihang’o have decried increased incidences of insecurity in the area.
The incident happened few hours after a woman was robbed of her handbag at gun point by gangsters a few metres from where Githinji was shot dead.
