Details have emerged on a former National Intelligence Service (NIS) officer at the Centre of assassination claims made by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Police Monday revealed the incident happened on July 12, at around 9.45pm as the former Regional Intelligence Officer for Nairobi and Central regions Patrick Gikonyo drove home.
Police said Gikonyo was driving his black Toyota Harrier along Suguta Road in Kileleshwa, Nairobi when the incident happened.
Gikonyo had left a hotel in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa area and was headed home when a lone gunman on a motorbike accosted him.
The man confronted him as he slowed down at a bump and demanded cash and other valuables from him before he fired once at him.
A bullet shattered the driver’s window, missing its intended target but grazing his right hand, police said.
He later drove to the hospital and reported the matter later on.
The gunman did not manage to steal anything from him as he rode off.
Gikonyo is a licensed gun holder but did not manage to fire back for his protection.
Police are treating the matter as a normal attempted robbery.
Police say they have not found any clue to suggest the shooting was an attempted assassination.
No arrest has been made.
The incident happened on the day President William Ruto made changes in the National Police Service and Kenya Prisons Service hence there was confusion in the service.
Gikonyo is not any ordinary man as he is the former Nairobi County and Central region head of Intelligence.
A well trained intelligence officer who has risen through the ranks of the NIS to his last post as Principal Intelligence Officer, he is taken to be a senior officer.
Gikonyo had been moved from NIS to the Office of the Deputy President where he is an adviser.
Gikonyo said he left all the details with the police who should explain more on the probe.
He said he is okay and safe at work.
Gachagua revealed that a former senior NIS official, whom he had recruited to assist in the fight against alcohol and drug abuse, was shot.
He claimed the officer, transferred from the NIS was assigned to investigate illicit alcohol and drug abuse, a task given by the president.
“I found one of the officers who was very senior in charge of Nairobi, and I brought him to my office to investigate the issue of illicit alcohol and drug abuse.”
“To try and intimidate me, that officer was trailed by a person in a boda boda while leaving his house in Kileleshwa and shot. By the grace of God, the bullet missed his head and hit him on the shoulder. He was taken to Nairobi Hospital, and the bullet was removed.”
He expressed disappointment that the incident had not been adequately addressed.
“The President did not know this information and I had to tell him. When the security bosses were asked, they started stuttering. To this day, that assassin who was sent to intimidate me and my staff has never been investigated, and the matter went silent,” he said during an interview with Kikuyu radio stations.
Gachagua said this was harassment terming it unprecedented, even compared to the previous administration, where former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s lieutenants allegedly undermined then-Deputy Ruto’s office.
He criticised security bosses for failing to adequately gather information about recent protests, leading them to rely on dubious narratives such as foreign interference and his supposed involvement.
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