In a scene reminiscent of the Hollywood movies, a gunfight ensued in Buruburu estate on Saturday afternoon as gangsters who had been snuffed out of Mombasa Road as they tried to rob a road contractor engaged the police in a gunfight in Eastlands.
The gangsters sped into Outer Ring road with police in hot pursued and on reaching Caltex Petrol station on the Kangundo Road/Outer Ring Road junction the gangsters who mistook a policeman on patrol to be part of the officers chasing them, shot the lone policeman in the head killing him on the spot before robbing him of his gun.
At this point two of the three gangsters were felled with one running across into Buruburu estate next to the Buruburu police station.
The lone gun man believed to have a former General Service Unit officer who had been recently sacked from the force, then ran into a house in Prudential Estate in Buruburu phase one where he flushed out a family and took control of the house.
He then engaged police drawn from the Buruburu police division into a long drawn gun fight. The man said to have been stout fought off the officers’ gun fire in a five hour gun fight while evading any shots aimed at the window where he was shooting from.
The Division commander then called for reinforcement from the Rece Company, a platoon of commandoes stationed in Ruiru who raced to Buruburu.
It was the entry of the elite squad that snuffed out the gunman felling him in less than two minutes.
The incident attracted a large crowd of Buruburu residents who could not believe the scene that was taking place in the middle class residential area.
"We have never seen anything like this," said a young woman.
Nairobi PPO Antony Kibuchi was equally perturbed by the incident. "This is the worst incident of crime that has ever happened in this country," said Kibuchi the Nairobi province commander.
In recent times Buruburu estate has seen a number of incidents involving shoot outs.
Last month five gangsters were felled in Buruburu Phase four as they headed off to a robbery, their mission was cut short as they drove past Buruburu Phase three shopping center in their ill motivated mission.
Source-