A Kenyan lawmaker was gunned down on a busy Nairobi avenue by a motorcycle-riding murderer on Wednesday night, in what the police described as a “focused and premeditated” assault.
The lawmaker, Charles Had been, who was serving a second time period in Parliament, was in a car stopped at a visitors gentle when he was killed, the police mentioned. Witnesses reported that an individual using on the again of a bike had hopped off and shot into the passenger facet of Mr. Had been’s automobile earlier than being whisked away by the bike’s driver, the police mentioned.
A motive was not instantly clear. Muchiri Nyaga, a police spokesman, mentioned in a assertion on Wednesday that it was too early for the authorities to offer extra particulars.
President William Ruto of Kenya known as on the police to “conduct a radical investigation” and expressed his condolences to Mr. Had been’s household. “These accountable have to be held to account,” he mentioned in a press release on Thursday.
The police mentioned the motive force and one other passenger within the automobile have been unhurt within the capturing and rapidly drove Mr. Had been to Nairobi Hospital, the place he was pronounced useless upon arrival.
Mr. Had been was re-elected to Parliament in 2022 as a member of the Orange Democratic Motion, the opposition celebration led by Raila Odinga, Mr. Ruto’s predominant rival within the earlier normal election.
Mr. Odinga, in a assertion on Thursday, in contrast the daytime capturing to “a gangland-style execution” that was “shockingly barbaric.”
Kenya has a fame as a comparatively secure nation in a unstable area. Frustration with the federal government hit a brand new excessive final yr throughout lethal protests in opposition to a tax enhance. Dozens of individuals have been kidnapped or arbitrarily detained by safety forces, in accordance with activists and human rights teams.
Mr. Ruto promoted the tax enhance as a essential measure to curb the nation’s staggering debt.
A rich businessman who grew up poor, Mr. Ruto campaigned on a platform of enhancing the financial system for Kenyans. His critics say that had not occurred.
Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting.
