Loaded pistol recovered in dustbin at Moi International Airport, Mombasa
FILE IMAGE OF A PISTOL
Security agencies are investigating an incident where a loaded pistol was recovered from a dustbin at Moi International Airport in Mombasa.
The firearm was discovered on Wednesday night by a cleaner while emptying a rubbish bin near Terminal One.
According to police, the cleaner noticed a black glove hidden among the trash and, upon inspecting it, found a pistol concealed inside. He immediately alerted airport security officers.
A multi-agency security team responded to the scene and established that the weapon was a 9mm Luger pistol.
The firearm was recovered together with two magazines, one loaded with 10 rounds of 9mm ammunition and the other with seven rounds.
Scene of Crime personnel processed the area before the pistol and ammunition were taken into police custody as exhibits.
Police have launched investigations to establish how the firearm ended up in the airport terminal and to identify the person who abandoned it.
Authorities said security at the airport remained normal following the recovery.
This comes in the wake of an ongoing investigations into the circumstances surrounding an incident where a missing pistol belonging to Court of Appeal judge Justice Aggrey Muchelule was recovered from a slain robbery suspect in Joska, Machakos County.
The Court of Appeal judge was questioned after the official pistol issued to him was recovered from the suspect on Monday.
Police said the judge is a licensed firearm holder but he had not renewed the permit since October 2025.
The suspect had been linked to a series of robberies in the city and elsewhere before he was trailed and killed in Joska area on Monday in a confrontation.
The latest incident he was linked to was the Chaiiwali Café attack along General Mathenge Road in Westlands on July 4, 2026, police said.
He and his accomplices attacked customers and robbed them of their mobile phones and a laptop, shot to the air and escaped on a waiting motorcycle.
The suspect identified as Vincent Ochieng was trailed to Joska area nine days later and shot dead by police.
After securing the house, officers recovered a Beretta pistol fitted with a magazine loaded with four rounds of 9mm ammunition.
Additional live rounds, spent cartridges and three mobile phones were also recovered from the scene.
The firearm was forwarded to the National Police Service Forensic Laboratory for ballistic analysis to establish whether it was used in other violent crimes and its ownership.
It was then that police established the firearm had been licensed and issued to the judge of the Court of Appeal in Nairobi.
The judge was summoned by police and reported he had lost the firearm. This was after he was informed the weapon had been recovered from a suspected criminal in Joska, Machakos County.
He told police officers he received a phone call informing him that his firearm had been found in the possession of a criminal.
The call prompted the judge to check his residence in Kitisuru, where he believed he had stored the firearm. Upon searching, he discovered that the weapon was missing.
He told police that he rarely carried the firearm and that the last time he physically confirmed its presence was in October 2025 when he intended to renew his firearm licence.
However, he did not complete the renewal process, and the licence expired on October 1, 2025.
The missing firearm is a Beretta pistol, together with 15 rounds of 9mm ammunition. It is the same one that was recovered from the slain suspect on Monday, police said after checking its details.
Police said they had launched investigations to establish how the firearm disappeared from the judge’s residence.
Authorities are also expected to establish the circumstances under which the firearm may have left the judge’s possession and whether any criminal offences were committed.