Aerial View of Eastleigh in Nairobi pictured on May 10, 2024. A series of brazen killings and kidnappings have shaken residents.
Eastleigh, a bastion of commerce that has seen heavy investment over the past decade, has recently been rocked by murders, prompting authorities to step up police patrols in the city's residential and commercial hub.
A series of brazen killings by gunmen and kidnappings for ransom, some of which have ended in murder, have shaken residents.
National Police Service (NPS) spokesperson Resila Onyango told the Nation last week that they had increased patrols in the area as a result of the incidents.
“Patrols have been increased in the vast Sub-County and we are engaging more with locals. The main aim is to ensure that information is shared with authorities to boost security in the area,” Dr Onyango said.
The murder of a businessman by gunmen on a motorcycle, the execution of a young man who only completed secondary school two years ago by a hitman in a chilling attack caught on CCTV, and the triple murder of a family are the latest cases under investigation.
Last week, Abdirahim Abdullahi Ibrahim, 25, was shot dead at close range outside DD Plaza by an assassin who remains at large in a brazen murder caught on CCTV.
Police are holding a woman, identified as Ms Amina Abdullah, and are looking for three other suspects in connection with the murder.
Police are hunting for a woman believed to be the deceased's lover. The woman has been missing since Ibrahim was shot.
According to family and friends, Abdullahi and the woman, who owned a hairdressing salon, had been in a relationship for eight months.
Abdirahman Mursal, the slain man's brother, wondered why someone would kill his brother, who had only completed Form Four in March 2022. He was a student at Lami Secondary School in Moyale.
“My brother cleared his secondary education recently. He had not even joined any tertiary institution. Why would one want to end his life in such a brutal manner?” Mr Mursal posed.
On October 21, Waris Daud, 38, her 12-year-old daughter Nuseiba Dahir and her niece Amina Abdirashad, 23, were killed and their bodies dumped in separate locations. An Ethiopian man, identified as Hashim Dagane Muhumed, is in custody as the prime suspect.
Authorities said he was in the country illegally.
Mr Muhumed is accused of luring the three to their deaths. Police say he was the driver of a Nissan Note, which was seen on CCTV cameras collecting Nuseiba and Amina from their home in Eastleigh at around 9pm on the day they went missing.
On March 26, Mr Adan Ali Mohamed, a businessman from Eastleigh, was shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle. He was robbed of Sh3.9 million.
Days later, the bodies of the suspected killers, captured on CCTV footage, were found at the City Mortuary. They were identified as Fredrick Kopo aka Frik and Jaylan Kibe.
The body of a woman said to be a close friend of Kibe was also found at the mortuary.
It is alleged that four days after the Eastleigh robbery, Kopo, Kibe and the woman, identified only as Esther, went to Mombasa to buy a vehicle. While they were at a car dealership, three men approached them and convinced them they had a better deal. They allegedly followed the three men to a showroom in Mombasa and that was the last time they were seen alive.
It remains unclear how they died in Nairobi County and how their bodies were collected from three different areas.
The Nation is also aware of dozens of reported cases linked to the construction of buildings in Eastleigh.
In May, Starehe Sub County Police Commander Fred Abuga deplored alarming cases of injuries and deaths at construction sites in the fast-growing Eastleigh and Pangani estates.
“About falling people and objects from high-rise buildings under construction, that is very common. We have cases reported every week about people falling from such buildings, especially construction workers, and we also have objects falling on passers-by within those areas. In most of the cases, people succumb to the injuries,” Mr Abuga said.
The police boss said following investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations team in the sub-county, one of the findings was poor safety standards, especially shoddy scaffolding.
