Police Probe a Suspected Sniper Shooting in Nairobi CBD

Detectives have opened a probe into the mysterious death of a 46-year-old woman along Kaunda Street in Nairobi’s central business district on Monday.

Mary Waithira Gathenya, an employee of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), was initially believed to have died of natural causes by police and witnesses at the scene.

But a pathologist who examined the woman’s body discovered a bullet lodged in her lungs, leading to a homicide investigation.

Police said the new findings pointed to the possibility of the bullet having been fired from an elevated angle.

The bullet is believed to have gone into the victim’s body through the collarbone before stopping 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.

Witnesses and police said Waithira complained of chest pains moments before she collapsed at around 5 pm on Monday.

Her companions called an ambulance, which arrived in time but the responders declared her dead at the scene.

Gathenya and her colleagues had walked from their workplace in Upper Hill and was headed home when the incident happened.

The body was moved from Nairobi Hospital to Kenyatta University mortuary, where a group of pathologists concluded the death was as a result of a shooting.

Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei said the bullet head was handed to ballistic experts for analysis.

An initial investigation revealed Gathenya was been shot moments before collapsing.