Human Rights Watch Investigating "Waithera Assassination"......

News & Politics
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[SIZE=7]DCI seals off the scene where NHIF employee Lilian Waithera was shot dead[/SIZE]
Thursday, February 16, 2023
By Hilary Kimuyu

Nation Media Group

Detectives from the forensic ballistics unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Thursday evening sealed off the scene where a woman was mysteriously shot dead on Kaunda Street in Nairobi on Monday.

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Outside Optica on Kaunda Street in Nairobi County, where Lilian Waithera, 46, who worked at the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF),
collapsed and died in this picture taken on Thursday, February 16, 2023.

Lilian Waithera, 46, who worked at the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) collapsed and died in Nairobi’s city center on Monday evening and it took a post-mortem to reveal that she had been shot.

Witnesses and police said as Waithera was walking when she started complaining of chest pains on February 13, at about 5 pm.

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She then collapsed and stopped breathing.

Her colleagues who were with her called an ambulance, which arrived quickly, but the responders declared her dead at the scene.

She had walked from her place of work in Upper Hill and was heading home when she collapsed.

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On Monday, Nairobi police boss Adamson Bungei said officers are investigating the incident.

Her family on Tuesday transferred her body to the Kenyatta University Mortuary, where a post-mortem showed the cause of death to be a 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.

An autopsy revealed the bullet was lodged in her lungs,” police said in a follow-up report on Tuesday.

“The bullet entered through the collar bone, having been fired from an elevated angle,” police added.

The bullet head has since been handed over to the police for ballistic examination.

Police have opened a file and handed over the case to detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for further investigations.

[SIZE=6]Nation. Empower Africa.[/SIZE]

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The case will go nowhere since its well connected govt thug who assassinated her.

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[SIZE=7]Lilian Waithera: Expert Explains Mysterious Sniper Theory, Raises 3 Questions[/SIZE]
[ul]
[li]By WASHINGTON MITO on 17 February 2023 - 3:31 pm[/li]
https://www.kenyans.co.ke/files/styles/article_style_mobile/public/images/media/Lilian%20Sniper.jpg?itok=XVbZZ9Vj
A photo collage of detectives at Kaunda Street where Lilian Waithera was killed on February 16, 2023 (left) and a sniper on a building (right).
[/ul]
Lilian Waithera’s death along Kaunda Street on Monday, February 13, led to a number of theories surrounding the incident even as detectives probed whether a sniper was involved.

In a bid to understand the sniper theory, Kenyans.co.ke, reached out to a security expert, George Musamali, who intimated that the involvement of a sniper was possible given the facts established regarding the incident so far.

However, he stated that there were three questions that needed to be answered by detectives in the course of their investigation to determine whether Lilian was targeted.

https://www.kenyans.co.ke/files/styles/article_inner_mobile/public/images/media/Lilian%20Waithera.jpg?itok=DSEO6Dha
A photo collage of Lilian Waithera’s portrait (left) and the NHIF main offices at Upper Hill Nairobi County (right).
[ol]
[li]Was Kaunda Street her daily route?[/li][li]Was she lured to that spot?[/li][li]What was the caliber (diameter of a gun barrel)?[/li][/ol]
Musamali explained that the answers to the three questions would explain the following elements of the case;

Chokepoint - A point of blockage
The expert indicated that it was prudent to establish whether Lilian used Kaunda Street daily when heading home. He stated that a sniper could have monitored her movements over time and struck at the opportune moment.

“The trajectory of the bullet is from above meaning that there was a high possibility that there was someone laying in wait. What we should try to piece together is whether that was her normal route every day,” Musamali explained.

He added that there was also a possibility that Waithera may have been led to the chokepoint if there was indeed foul play.

Why Did No One Hear the Gunshot?
According to the autopsy report, Lilian had a bullet in her lungs. This made the incident mysterious given that nobody at the scene reported hearing a gunshot.

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A man walks yesterday past the spot on Kaunda Street in Nairobi where National Health Insurance Fund worker Lilian Waithera, 46, collapsed and died on February 13, 2023.

“Lilian and I were walking side by side. She just stopped and asked me to call for her an ambulance then fell down. I did not hear any gunshots,” Damaris Achieng’ - who was in the company of Lilian - stated.

However, the security expert explained that it was possible that the sniper could have either used a silencer or a point 22 (.22 rifle).

Musamali explained that with all the noise in the street, it would be difficult to hear the sound of a gunshot given that .22 sounds like a clap when fired.

In most cases when point 22 is used, the bullet enters the body and does not exit from the other side as was in the case of Lilian. Nonetheless, he stated that the type of gun used would be answered by determining the caliber.

Preservation of Crime Scene
Musamali opined that the crime scene was mismanaged given that the area was not cordoned off by the police after the incident. Police cordoned off the area on February 16 - three days after the incident.

He stated that experts needed to have been at the scene to document various details that would help in the investigations. However, he noted that a suspect could still be traced in any event.

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DCI officer carrying out investigations at Kaunda Street in Nairobi County on February 16, 2023

“There is no way that a criminal will clear all his footprints. There is always something that will lead people to that criminal,” he stated.

Snipers in Kenya
The security expert revealed that there were a number of trained snipers in the country given that security agencies trained several officers on the lethal skill.

“We have people who have left the service under different circumstances but are highly trained but definitely, this must have been a trained hand,” he stated.

Police Theories
According to the police, investigators were chasing two theories - murder and misadventure. Misadventure is death caused unintentionally when someone is performing a legal act hence the talk of a stray bullet.

Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei intimated that they were focusing on two buildings along the street where the shot may have been fired from.

“Two theories that we are pursuing are either a possible murder or where a gun holder recklessly dislodges a bullet from an elevated angle and accidentally lands on an innocent person,’’ a detective stated.

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[SIZE=7]Suspect in Lilian Waithera Nairobi CBD shooting arrested[/SIZE]
Monday, February 20, 2023

In Summary
[ul]
[li]The man was traced to his home in Kenol, Murang’a where he has been in the past week.[/li][li]He denied shooting the killer bullet that hit Mary Gathenya on February 13 as she walked home.[/li][/ul]

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Screengrab of CCTV footage showing the exact moment National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) employee Lilian Waithera (inset) was shot while walking with a colleague along Kaunda Street in Nairobi city centre. A suspect in the shooting has been arrested.

A licensed firearm holder was Monday arrested over the fatal shooting of a female National Hospital Insurance Fund officer on Kaunda Street, Nairobi.

The man was traced to his home in Kenol, Murang’a where he has been in the past week.

He denied shooting the killer bullet that hit Mary Gathenya Waithera on February 13 as she walked home.

He told police he was in the CBD on that day and was carrying his rifle but he never fired.

Police suspect he discharged the gun by mistake and the killer bullet came down hitting Gathenya in the collar borne.

The man was disarmed of his rifle and the weapon was handed over to the ballistic experts for analysis.

Other police sources said the man has a female friend at Jubilee Insurance Building which is opposite the site where Gathenya was killed.
“He says he never went up to any of the floors at the building and he allegedly went and placed the weapon in his car before leaving,” said a senior officer aware of the probe.

The man was picked up by detectives who said he had been out of town for long.

The suspect is a businessman in town. Police are now trying to place him at the scene of the crime as part of the probe.

Initially, police and pedestrians had thought Gathenya, 46 collapsed and died out of natural causes but an autopsy done on the body realized a bullet lodged in her lungs.

The bullet had been fired from an elevated angle and went into the body through the collar borne before stopping in the lungs.

Blood was oozing from his mouth after she collapsed seeking help.

She told those close to her something had hit her.

The body was moved from Nairobi Hospital to Kenyatta University mortuary where the post-mortem was conducted by a group of pathologists who declared the case of death as a result of the shooting.

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

He confirmed the suspect had been arrested as part of the probe into the incident.
“We suspect it was a bullet that discharged and came back hitting her but let us hear what experts say,” he said.

Witnesses and police said Gathenya started to complain of chest pain as she walked downtown on February 13 at about 5 pm.

She then collapsed and lost her breath. Her colleagues who were with her called an ambulance which arrived minutes later but the responders declared her dead at the scene.

She had walked from her place of work in Upper Hill and was headed home when the incident happened.

Other witnesses said they had heard a gun fire at that time but police said there were blood stains at the scene.

The incident sparked speculation it could be an assassin’s work. But police say it is far-fetched.