Top row: Pio Gama Pinto (left) Tom Mboya, JM Kariuki and Robert Ouko. Bottom row: Mugabe Were, George Muchai, Charles Ong'ondo Were and lawyer Mbobu Kyalo.
Going by the suspicion of police detectives that slain lawyer Mbobu Kyalo could have been eliminated by hired killers, the case joins a string of high-profile murders in Kenya involving hitmen, some stretching back to the period after independence.
The growing list points to a thriving shadow enterprise of contract killing in the country, though police authorities have previously promised to deal with the vice.
Lawyer Kyalo Mbobu.
Some assassination cases have remained unsolved, others have seen culprits imprisoned, while others remain a mystery. Politicians, lawyers, whistleblowers possessing explosive secrets, and human rights activists have become the main victims of targeted killings by hitmen.
Two years after Kenya gained independence, politician-cum-rights activist of Indian origin Pio Gama Pinto was shot dead on February 24, 1965, becoming the first prominent leader to be placed in the assassinations and executions bracket in independent Kenya.
Pio Gama Pinto.
He was shot at close range in his driveway while waiting for a gate to be opened at his home in the Westlands neighbourhood of Parklands, Nairobi. The suspected killer, Kisilu Mutua, was released from jail after 36 years in 2001 under a presidential pardon. Mutua, who died in 2023 at the age of 79, had been sentenced to death.
Since then, ten other politicians have been gunned down, with some incidents alleged to have had government involvement. They include Tom Mboya (1969), Josiah Mwangi (JM) Kariuki (1975), Robert Ouko (1990), Anthony Ndilinge (2001), Mugabe Were (2008), David Kimutai Too (2008), George Muchai (2015), and Ong’ondo Were (2025).
A portrait of Nyandarua MP Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, popularly known as JM Kariuki.
Mboya was assassinated on July 5, 1969, outside a pharmacy shop on Government Road within Nairobi’s central business district, currently called Moi Avenue. A suspect named Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge was arrested and convicted of the murder.
For JM Kariuki, a former member of the Mau Mau movement and Nyandarua North MP at the time of his death, the case remains open as nobody was ever arrested. It was reported that he vanished from Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, on March 2, 1975, never to be seen alive again. His body, later found at Ngong Forest by a herdsman, bore gunshot wounds.
Bitter exchange
According to reports, he was shot in the arm by the then head of the GSU (General Service Unit), Ben Gethi, during a bitter exchange with one of his captors, President Kenyatta’s personal bodyguard, the Daily Nation reported.
The death of Dr Robert Ouko, former Cabinet Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in February 1990, also remains unresolved and is considered one of the most intriguing assassinations in the country’s history. Ouko was shot dead, his arm and leg broken, and his body set on fire at the foot of Got Alila Hill near his home in Koru, Muhoroni. A British forensic expert told the Ouko Commission of Inquiry that suicide had been ruled out.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs the late Dr Robert Ouko.
Former Nakuru District Commissioner Jonah Anguka was the only person arrested and charged, but he was later acquitted. Anguka denied the charges.
Fast-forward to the new millennium, on August 1, 2001, Kilome MP Anthony Ndilinge was shot twice in the head at close range while parking his car outside a bar in Githurai 44, Nairobi. Opposition politicians at the time described the killing as politically motivated, as Ndilinge was a vocal critic of then President Daniel Moi’s regime. Two suspects, a man and a woman, were charged but were released unconditionally in 2003 after the State failed to sufficiently link them to the crime.
In January 2008, Embakasi MP Melitus Mugabe Were was shot dead outside his home in Nairobi’s Woodley estate. He sustained fatal gunshot wounds to the upper body. Three men — James Omondi, Wycliffe Walimbwa and Paul Otieno — were sentenced to death by the High Court in 2015.
Former Embakasi MP Melitus Mugabe Were, who was killed by gunmen in Woodley Estate, Nairobi, on January 29, 2008.
Still in January 2008, former Ainamoi MP David Kimutai Too was shot dead in Eldoret town. A traffic policeman, Andrew Mueche Omwenga, was arraigned, but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter. He was jailed for 10 years after the court ruled the incident stemmed from provocation and self-defence in a love triangle.
On February 7, 2015, Kenyans woke up to the news of the shooting of former Kabete MP George Muchai by unknown assailants near the Kenyatta Avenue–Uhuru Highway roundabout in Nairobi’s CBD. The MP, his two bodyguards, and his driver were all killed at point-blank range. Six suspects were arrested, and the trial is still active at the High Court in Milimani.
Former Kabete MP George Muchai.
In April 2025, former Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were was shot dead in Nairobi, becoming the latest MP to join the list of those killed while in office. Three suspects, William Imoli Shighali, Edwin Oduor Odhiambo, and Ebel Ochieng, are facing trial at the High Court in Kibera. They are accused of jointly murdering the MP on the night of April 30, 2025, at about 7:45 pm, near the City Mortuary Roundabout along Ngong Road in Kilimani, Nairobi County.
In the civil rights activism and justice sector, victims of execution-style murders include Oscar Kamau King’ara and John Paul Oulu (2009), John Waweru (2009), Prof Chrispin Odhiambo Mbai (2003), environmental activist Joannah Stutchbury (2021), and lawyer Mbobu Kyalo (2025), among others.
Devolution
The shooting of Dr Chrispin Odhiambo Mbai in September 2003 is among the unsolved murders. The university lecturer, who pushed for devolution, was killed at his home in Nairobi. It was alleged that his death was linked to his political views. Two suspects were arrested but later cleared.
For the killing of conservationist Joannah Stutchbury, no arrests were ever made. It was alleged that she was targeted for opposing environmental destruction in Kiambu Forest.
Services of hitmen have also been outsourced by jilted lovers and business associates. In September 2024, for example, a businesswoman was arraigned in a Nairobi court over accusations of plotting to kill her business associate Anthony Maina, allegedly offering a hitman Sh21 million with a down payment of Sh1 million. The plan failed after the would-be killer, Marvin Omondi, backed out and informed Maina. The businesswoman’s trial is ongoing at Milimani Law Courts.
Another prominent case was that of former Icaciri Girls’ High School Principal Jane Muthoni, sentenced in 2021 to 30 years in jail for orchestrating the 2016 murder of her husband, Solomon Mwangi, over allegations of infidelity.
In May 2016, businessman Jacob Juma was shot dead by unknown gunmen on Ngong Road, Nairobi. At the time, he was a vocal anti-corruption crusader and ally of opposition politicians. He was also involved in a high-profile legal case against the government. No arrests were ever made.
The late businessman Jacob Juma.
In 2015, Nakumatt Supermarkets’ internal auditor James Karanja Maina was shot twice in the head and once in the chest in the midst of a theft investigation at the company. Three suspects were acquitted in 2022 after the High Court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.
In Mombasa, a woman was arraigned in court over accusations of orchestrating the June 2021 murder of her husband, Dutch national Herman Rouwenhorst, at their Shanzu apartment. She allegedly hired a hitman through a close friend, who later turned State witness through a plea bargain. The trial continues.
