There was chaos in Kisumu’s Central Business District on Monday morning after a 21-year-old man opened fire on police officers along Otieno Oyoo Street, sending traders and pedestrians fleeing for safety.
According to Kisumu Central Deputy Sub-County Police Commandant Bakari Mwanauli, the drama began when officers noticed the young man in the company of two others, carrying a suspicious-looking bag. But once the suspect noticed the officers, he is said to have drawn a gun from his bag and begun engaging officers in an exchange.
“This morning, we had an incident at around the Patel Samaj Temple along Otieno Oyoo Street. One of the assailants had a bag that drew suspicion. Upon spotting the officers, he withdrew an assault rifle and started shooting at them,” Mwanauli explained.
The suspect then stormed into the temple compound, where he allegedly held a security guard at gunpoint, robbed him of his mobile phone and other belongings, and tied him up with a piece of cloth.
In what seemed like a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie, the suspect reportedly climbed to the top of the building and positioned himself near a water tank, where he staged his brief standoff with police.
He continued to fire at the officers from inside the building as residents and worshippers in the area scrambled for safety.
A special team of police officers in the lakeside city, with support from their colleagues on routine patrol near Patel Samaj Temple, managed to subdue and arrest the suspect, recovering an AK-47 rifle and five rounds of ammunition.
According to preliminary investigations, the gun is alleged to have been used in several incidents of robbery within Kisumu city.
The suspect is currently being held in police custody at Kisumu Central Police Station as investigations continue to determine the source of the firearm.
Additionally, he is set to be arraigned in court as police continue to pursue his two other accomplices, who managed to run.
Kisumu is not new to gun dramas, especially within the CBD. In March 2021, a man grabbed a pistol from a traffic police officer around the Jomo Kenyatta Highway roundabout and shot indiscriminately at passers-by and commuters, killing one and injuring three others.
A police report said the suspect, whose motive remained unknown, approached the officer before grabbing and running away with his gun, opening fire indiscriminately at the unsuspecting crowd.
In 2024, in the residential hillside area of Riat, a 42-year-old Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officer was also stabbed to death by a gang while on his way home in the evening.
