Kenya police say lawmaker's killing 'targeted and premeditated'
FILE PHOTO: Kenyan Parliamentary staff and forensic experts secure the vehicle in which slain Kenyan lawmaker Charles Were from Kasipul Constituency was shot dead at close range by two gunmen who were trailing him with a motorbike, outside the Nairobi hospital in Nairobi, Kenya April 30, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo
NAIROBI - Kenya's police have said the fatal shooting of a lawmaker by a gunman aboard a motorcycle in the capital Nairobi on Wednesday evening appeared to be targeted and premeditated.
Charles Were, a member of parliament representing Kasipul constituency in Kenya's west, was shot dead at around 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) when his vehicle was stopped at a traffic light on Ngong Road, police said in a statement released late on Wednesday.
According to witnesses, the shooter was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle that stopped alongside the car, police said.
"The pillion passenger approached the vehicle and fired shots at the passenger side before jumping back onto the motorcycle and speeding away," police said. "The nature of this crime appears to be both targeted and premeditated."
Political assassinations are unusual in Kenya, a relatively stable country in a region that has experienced several civil conflicts in recent years.
Were was a member of the opposition ODM party led by veteran politician Raila Odinga, who lost to William Ruto in the last election in 2022.
"Were is no more; mercilessly and in cold blood, gunned down by an assassin in Nairobi this evening," Odinga wrote on X.
Odinga rejected the 2022 election result, alleging irregularities, but Odinga and some of his allies have since struck agreements to work with Ruto to address Kenya's economic and political challenges. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
18 minutes ago
- Straits Times
US issues sanctions against charities supporting Hamas, PFLP
The US Treasury said it will continue to seek disruptions to the financial capabilities of Hamas. PHOTO: REUTERS WASHINGTON - The United States imposed sanctions on June 10 targeting individuals and sham charities that it said were prominent financial supporters of the Palestinian groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The individuals and groups targeted were funding Hamas' military wing under the pretense of doing humanitarian work, in Gaza and internationally, the Treasury Department said. The Treasury said it will continue to seek disruptions to the financial capabilities of Hamas, which still holds hostages it seized in the group's Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The entities sanctioned included the Gaza-based Al Weam Charitable Society, the Turkey-based Filistin Vakfi, the El Baraka Association for Charitable and Humanitarian Work, which is based in Algeria, the Netherlands-based Israa Charitable Foundation and the Associazione Benefica La Cupola d'Oro, based in Italy, the department said in a statement. The five individuals targeted on June 10 were leaders associated with the groups, it said. "Today's action underscores the importance of safeguarding the charitable sector from abuse by terrorists like Hamas and the PFLP, who continue to leverage sham charities as fronts for funding their terrorist and military operations," Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender said in the statement. Hamas and PFLP have a long histroy of abusing non-profit organisations and charities, the Treasury said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
18 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Russia and Ukraine swap more prisoners of war, Moscow says
MOSCOW - Russia and Ukraine exchanged more prisoners of war on Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry said, without giving details of the numbers involved. The exchange was agreed between the two sides at talks in Istanbul last week, and an initial swap of prisoners under the age of 25 was conducted on Monday. The defence ministry in Moscow said the Russians freed in the latest handover were currently in Belarus, which borders both the warring countries, and would be returned to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation. Earlier, the Kremlin said it had been ready for several days to start handing over the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war, but that Kyiv was still discussing the details. The planned transfer of thousands of war dead was the other tangible result of the Istanbul talks, which resumed last month after a gap of more than three years but have made no progress towards a ceasefire. Russia has said it is ready to hand over the bodies of more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers and receive any bodies of Russian soldiers which Kyiv is able to return. But Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday that the Russian side had shown up at the agreed exchange point with the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian dead soldiers only to find nobody from Ukraine to take them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Moscow of "trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game" around the issue of the exchanges. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday: "There is no final understanding. Contact is being made, numbers are being compared. As soon as there is a final understanding, then we hope this exchange will take place." Russian state media has broadcast images of long white refrigerated trucks, containing bodies sealed in individual white bags, parked up near the border. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
18 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Israel's Netanyahu says significant progress made in talks to release hostages
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that there had been "significant progress" in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was "too soon" to raise hopes that a deal would be reached. Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal. Netanyahu, who has come under pressure from within his right-wing coalition to continue the war and block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, said in a video statement shared by his office that there had been progress, without providing details. A source familiar with the negotiations said that Washington had been giving Hamas more assurances, in the form of steps that would lead to an end to the war, but said it was U.S. officials who were optimistic, not Israeli ones. The source said there was pressure from Washington to have a deal done as soon as possible. The White House National Security Council and representatives for U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading U.S. efforts in the ceasefire talks, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did Hamas representatives. Israel's leadership has said that it would wage war until the remaining 55 hostages held in Gaza are freed and when Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war, has been dismantled. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, has said it would no longer govern after the war if a Palestinian, non-partisan technocratic committee took over, but it has refused to disarm. The U.S. has proposed a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel said it would abide by the terms but Hamas has sought amendments. The militants have said that they would release all hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war. The war in Gaza has raged since Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in the October 2023 attack and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
