NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 – The Nairobi County Transition Coordinator Eliud Baraza was shot dead by unknown assailants on Monday morning.
Baraza was gunned down shortly after 6am in the city’s Eastlands suburb a few minutes after emerging from his house on his way to work.
Following the incident, Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero expressed concern over the escalating crime wave but vowed that the county will not relent in restoring security.
“We can assure you that the days of thugs in Nairobi are numbered. We will not allow them to terrorise citizens. We will ensure that Nairobi becomes a safe place to work in,” he stated.
Kidero pointed out that nothing was stolen from Baraza.
“(We need) a place where families are happy to live in, a place where children can play without fear, a place where you can come to do business without fear of being attacked, a place where investors can come and invest and expect to get a good return.”
Kidero described Baraza as a well educated man whose death dealt a great blow to the devolution process.
“In 1995, he joined the Ministry of Education headquarters as a senior education officer rising very quickly to the assistant director of education in the year 2006. In 2007, he transferred his services on promotion and went to Eastern province residing in Embu as the director of Youth Affairs. On March 2013, Baraza joined us as the county coordinator from the Transitional Authority,” Kidero stated.
“We would like to say how sorry we are to have lost such a good man. Very industrious, very diligent, a man of very few words but a lot of action and productivity.”
The governor further urged all Kenyans to always cooperate when accosted with such a life threatening situation involving thugs.
His sentiments were echoed by the Transition Authority chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi who emphasised the need to put measures in place to prevent such unnecessary loss of life.
“It saddens us to lose out of useless brutality such a senior official and to interrupt the process of devolution in Nairobi County. We are definitely angry as Kenyans and as the Transition Authority team because this was a useless loss of life,” he stated.
He called for a speedy investigation into the shooting and urged the government to do its best in the fight against crime.
“We do not want to speculate but we must with all emphasis appeal to the National government to reign in criminals and to look after security in this country because as people who are trying to promote seamless devolution, this cannot succeed in violent circumstances and security is the biggest impediment,” he said.
“We hope that governor Kidero will continue to enhance his effort to liaise with the national government to ensure that this city is safe.”
Source:capitalfm.co.ke
