Detectives in Nairobi have arrested a suspect in the shooting and killing of 46-year-old Lilian Waithera.
Nairobi Police Commander Adamson Bungei confirmed a man was in custody.
According to the police, Waithera, who worked at the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), collapsed and died on Kaunda Street, Nairobi.
Her colleagues who were with her called an ambulance, but the responders declared her dead at the scene.
A post-mortem showed the cause of death to be shooting, after a bullet was found lodged in the lungs.
“The female NHIF staff who collapsed and died along Kaunda Street on Monday evening had been shot from an elevated angle. Autopsy revealed the bullet was lodged in her lungs,” police said Tuesday last week.
“The bullet entered through the collar bone, having been fired from an elevated angle,” police added.
Waithera, who had worked at NHIF for 15 years, and whom colleagues described as the go-to person because she was well-versed with the government agency’s operations, was walking with Ms Damaris Achieng’ when she complained of chest pain.
That was at 5.30pm, when she asked Ms Achieng’ to call an ambulance, moments before she collapsed on the pavement outside an Optica outlet on Kaunda Street. She was bleeding from the nose and mouth, according to Ms Achieng’ and other witnesses who flocked the scene. They said she held her chest before collapsing.
“We were walking side by side. She just stopped and asked me to call for her an ambulance then fell down,” Ms Achieng said. The ambulance arrived at 5:58pm but it was too late. Medics pronounced her dead at the scene.
Mr Bungei explained that the bullet that hit Waithera was fired by someone who was above, in one of the buildings. There are two high-rise buildings at the scene.
Hamilton House, which has two restaurants, Almandi Yemeni House and Dream Bean House, and several offices. Adjacent to it to the left is Eco Bank Towers.
Based on the spot with blood stains, the detailed trajectory of the bullet as captured in the post-mortem report can point from which building the shot came from.
