On Tuesday evening, police are said to have responded to a robbery at Lexo Petrol Station where it alleged that five people drove in a Touareg Volkswagen vehicle at around 8:30pm and immediately brandished pistols and an AK-47 rifle to the personal operating the facility.
Other reports had indicated that police had been tipped of an emerging robbery by some gangsters planning to rob the petrol station and had laid ambush.
“Police laid an ambush and challenged the criminals but they started firing at the police officers before being overpowered and gunned down. Five of them were killed,” Juja DCIO Mr. Ali Samatar said.
On that fateful night, Juja police gunned down the five suspected gangsters along the Thika Superhighway while it alleged that one escaped with the AK-47 rifle.
However, the drama in the incidence has quickly changed and it is now guns on the police after the law society of Kenya and the independent police oversight commission called on investigations to unravel how police responded to the scene.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has written to the Deputy Inspector General of Police Edward Mbugua and Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Hajji asking for investigations, arrests and prosecution of the perpetrators of the murder of Jeremiah Kinyua Meeme, the slain lawyer.
After the deadly shooting, four of them lay dead in a pool of blood inside their vehicle after it was sprayed with over forty bullets.
Law Society of Kenya President Allen Waiyaki Gichuhi
IPOA said that it had immediately launched investigations “with a view of unravelling the circumstances that led to the fatal shootings.”
“Upon conclusion, if culpability is found, the Authority will ensure the responsible officers face the full force of the law through appropriate criminal or disciplinary recommendations to the Director of Public Prosecutions and other suitable Government Agencies,” said IPOA chair Anne Makori.
According to police they recovered from the robbers weapons including an AK 47 magazine with 25 rounds, three homemade pistols, a police shirt and pullovers among other items.
Their bodies were taken to City Mortuary for identification and autopsy, however, one body is yet to be claimed.
The LSK letter is also copied to the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Hajji.
LSK President Allen Gichuhi said that “there can be no greater threat to the rule of law in this country than when defenders of the rule of law are placed in mortal and personal danger due to extrajudicial executions.”
“I must appeal to your good offices to conduct most urgently a thorough investigation to identify these evil perpetrators who must then be apprehended, arraigned in court and prosecuted accordingly,” said Gichuhi.
Family and colleagues of the slain lawyer Jeremiah Meeme maintained his innocence but refused to divulge more details as they asked to be allowed to grieve.
It was not clear why they had gone to Juja, but an acquaintance hinted that one of them had a case in Embu and that’s where they were coming from.