Assassins on wheels: How killers on motorbike terrorise Nairobi's elite

Gun-toting assassins riding on motorbikes are becoming a common thing in Nairobi, nipping lives and throwing families into mourning and despair.

The latest victim is city lawyer, Mathew Kyalo Mbobu, whose life was cut shot on Tuesday evening along Magadi Road in Karen South.

Witnesses said two assailants on a motorbike shot Mbobu at around 6pm.

A grisly video from the scene showed shattered window of his vehicle with his bloodied body lying on the driver’s seat.

The lawyer’s killing comes slightly over four months since Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were was assassinated in Nairobi in a similar style.

On May 2, the MP was shot by gunmen on a motorbike along Ngong Road near the City Mortuary roundabout.

Police reports revealed that gunmen had been trailing his movements from the city centre after he left Parliament Buildings.

Mbobu’s case adds to a number of assassinations by gun-wielding boda boda riders. In 2015, for instance, Nakumatt Manager James Karanja was accosted as he drove home from work.

Three men approached him on a motorcycle and shot him in the head and chest on a slip road between Mombasa Road and Nakumatt head office. They sped off without stealing anything.

Security experts are now sounding a warning over the trend, listing failed security system, accessibility to firearms and joblessness.

Security analyst George Musamali said the use of motorbikes has become common worldwide by gangs who carry assassinations.

“What we are witnessing is targeted killings such that a target has been identified and put under surveillance and his routine mastered, even places where they frequent,” he said.

He said the hitmen then plot how to lay the ambush. 

“They then pick the chokepoint where the prey will be cornered, including the exact road where they will shoot them,” he added, noting that at this stage they decide what device to use to escape.

“The use of motorcycles in Nairobi is so as to help them easily avoid traffic jam, but the plan sometimes involves a standby motor vehicle.” 

On Wednesday, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President, Faith Odhiambo, described the shooting as a “pre-determined assassination”.

Another expert Ken Muge explained that due to unemployment, young men are easily lured with cash, trained to use firearms before they are tasked to do the dirty job.

“They use motorcycles in towns to avoid getting stuck in traffic and unlike vehicles sometimes it might not be easy to capture the details because of speed,” he said.

“They mostly strike during the evening hours when you are arriving home just at the gate or on traffic. Maybe people need to change their routine to avoid being tracked. I mean high profile people like judges, lawyers and even politicians.”

Mbobu's killing comes at a time when Kenyans have been raising concerns over misconduct of boda boda riders, including the recent links to criminal gangs in the city centre.

Last week, boda boda riders who operate within the town centre called a meeting due to the rising cases of muggings.

“Motorbikes that are not registered or not in any of the Saccos are the ones that are being used to carry out robbery activities in the city centre,” said Patrick Muasya, chairman of 047 Boda Boda Sacco.

"Going forward we will ensure that all the riders are registered so that when someone is caught on the wrong, it is easy to get their details."

They appealed to the county and national government to get rid of riders who operate on undesignated areas.

But these are not the only cases of high-profile killings in the city. There have been other drive-by murders. Some of the cases have gone cold, while others are dragging in court.

In May, 2016, controversial businessman Jacob Juma was shot dead near Ngong Road-Karen interchange by gunmen who escaped on motorbike after firing 10 shots his vehicle.

Days before the killing, Juma had publicised a plot to kill him over his views and legal cases against the government, among other deals.

A year before, Kabete MP George Muchai, his two bodyguards and a driver were shot dead in cold blood at the Kenyatta Avenue-Uhuru Highway roundabout in the city centre at about 2.30am.

Witnesses said they had stopped near Nyayo House to buy the day’s newspapers when a white Probox hit their vehicle on the right side and stopped a few metres ahead.

Others who have been assassinated in this style include Paul Ngugi, a land dealer who was shot 13 times along Forest Road in 2019.

Another case is that land broker Jared Aachok, who was shot dead in broad daylight on October 4, 2014, along Manyanja Road in Umoja Estate while heading to town.

The assailants in a vehicle first blocked his car, aimed at the driver before going for Achok who was occupying the back seat.

International Commission of Jurists Executive Director, Eric Mukoya, links the rising cases of assassinations to insecurity.

“The thugs have gone rampant while the police have slept on the job. We have seen police effectively clamp down protests, but we have not seen police effectively clamp down thugs,” Mukoya stated.

In reference to thugs who were reported to be accosting people at the city centre Mukoya said this speaks to a broader security question in the country.

“So, when it comes to issues of whether we are investigating right or not, I think we need to look at the whole question of justice…we have not even been told of the various other murders and killings that have happened,” he posed

Adding that, “Apart from the late MP just the other day, we have not been given full information about past murders, especially where people are gunned down.”

The Executive Director said it was baffling that detectives are sometimes unable to carry out investigations even in a city like Nairobi with CCTV cameras all over.

“And even when they do that, do we ever come to find out whether the arrests were done and whether people were actually punished for the mistakes they were suspected to have committed?”

“We have asked questions about investigations, not just about people who have been shot, but also people who have disappeared, people who have been killed by police and police officers who have suffered in the process of doing their work,” Mukoya added.