An armed gang took advantage of a power outage to stage a robbery in Rumuruti town, Laikipia County where they shot dead a 22-year-old man and injured a woman.
The man who was an attendant at a newly started electronic-cum-Mpesa shop died instantly after he was shot in the head at close range by one of the two men who were armed with an AK47 rifle.
Laikipia West Sub-County Police Commander, Moffat Mang’ere said the robbers are suspected to have also taken an unknown amount of money from the shop.
The Police chief said it was not immediately clear how the robbers escaped after the 8.20 pm incident since it was dark due to power outage that affected Nakuru, Laikipa and Samburu counties.
“Two people armed with guns entered the shop posing as customers but it is not yet clear what transpired between them but it looks there was resistance by the young man leading to the opening of fire by the robbers.
“It is not known how they escaped, whether on foot or by a getaway car or motorbike. Serious investigations are underway.
“But as they escaped they shot and injured a woman on the arm,” Mang’ere said.
The deceased who was only identified as Ian is said to be related to the owner of the shop that was started about two months ago. The shop owner was not in at the time of the robbery.
The body was taken to Nyahururu County hospital mortuary while the injured woman was admitted at the same facility, the Laikipia West Sub County Police Commander said.
Kenya Power attributed the blackout to “load shedding due to generation shortfall” which affected the main line from Nakuru to Samburu that passes through Laikipia.
The Thursday evening incident rattled business people in the town causing them to hold a crisis meeting, Friday, to deliberate on how to stop the generally peaceful town from sliding into lawlessness.
The chairman of the business people in Rumuruti town, Fredrick Mwangi aka Buffalo said they were apprehensive the incident could be linked to business rivalry.
Mwangi said maybe some people were jealous that a business that was started two months ago had picked very fast, overtaking many old ones.
“We don’t want to keep quiet because we don’t know who might be next,” the chairman said.
But the police boss termed the case an isolated robbery with violence incident. He urged any person who might have any information that can lead to the arrest of the robbers to volunteer the same to the police.
