Human rights activist shot in his Rongai house
Human rights activist and Amnesty International country director Justus Nyangaya was on Tuesday night shot and seriously injured at his residence in Ongata Rongai area.
Mr Nyangaya was shot on the left side of his chest, his left hand and thigh in his house in Acacia estate, Ole Kasasi area, at around midnight.
While giving an account of the incidence that happened a few minutes before midnight, Mr Nyang’aya said he had just returned to his house after escorting a neigbour when he was accosted by six men who forced themselves into his compound as he was closing the gate.
“They came running towards me and at first, I thought they were just youths from neigbouring homes. I realized they were thugs when they pushed the door as I tried closing it,” he told journalists at Karen hospital where he is admitted.
The six took his wallet and kept asking Mr Nyang’aya to hand them more money.
“I told them the money in the wallet was all I had been left with,” he said.
As they pushed the door and he tried to prevent them from opening, one of them drew a small gun and shot him on the hand but he kept pushing. He was then shot on the chest.
“I did not want to let them in because my wife and daughters were in there. I had no idea what they would do to them,” he said in his hospital bed.
“When they saw that I had been persistent, the gun holder shot me on the leg and tried to shoot my chest again,” he said, “but he realized that he had run out of bullets.”
By that time, the human rights activist was bleeding profusely and was weak.
The thugs entered the house and made away with several electronics and some cash from his wife.
“When they left, my wife tried rushing me to hospital but we had a breakdown on the way. A good Samaritan then took me in his car and brought me over” he said.
Mr Nyang’aya said that he had no reason to believe that the incident was an assassination plot. He believes it was a random robbery.
Nairobi County Police Chief, Benson Kibui said the Flying Squad is investigating the matter which he also said was being treated as robbery as for now.