Ruto calls for thorough probe into MP's assassination

A Kenyan Member of Parliament was shot dead in the streets of the capital Nairobi by gunmen on a motorcycle in a suspected assassination, reports BBC News. Police said the attackers had been trailing Charles Ong'ondo Were's vehicle before one of them got off the motorbike and shot him at close range. ‘The nature of this crime appears to be both targeted and predetermined,’ police spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga said. The opposition MP had two months ago complained about threats to his life, local media reported. The attack on Wednesday happened along Ngong Road near a busy roundabout often manned by traffic police officers and well secured with security cameras. Shortly after the shooting, senior police commanders and detectives visited the scene and investigations are underway, police said. President William Ruto has ordered police to conduct a thorough investigation into the attack. Fellow legislators who visited the scene on Wednesday night called for swift investigations and justice.

Parliament Speaker Moses Wetang'ula described the MP as a ‘fearless and distinguished’ legislator, calling his shooting ‘devastating’. The motive for his killing is still not clear but the soft-spoken legislator had publicly claimed some ‘hired goons’ were plotting to assassinate him, attributing the plot to local politics, according to BBC News. In February, he expressed concern over growing violence and unrest during public events in the Kasipul constituency in western Kenya which he represented. Were was serving his second term in Parliament as a member of the Orange Democratic Movement, led by veteran politician Raila Odinga. In his statement, Odinga condemned the killing, saying the legislator was ‘mercilessly, and in cold blood, gunned down by an assassin’. Odinga lost to Ruto in the 2022 election and rejected the results due to alleged irregularities. The former Prime Minister has since struck a political deal with Ruto which saw some opposition members join Cabinet in what is referred as the ‘broad-based government’– which Were supported.

Full BBC News report