Kenya police say MP killing looks 'premeditated'

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Kenyan police said the murder of a politician in the capital Nairobi appears to have been premeditated and targeted, with the president promising on Thursday that those responsible would be caught.

Charles Ong'ondo Were, an MP for the Kasipul area in the country's west, was shot when his car stopped at a red light on a busy thoroughfare by an unknown assailant who fled the scene on a motorbike, police said.

Political killings are rare in Kenya, considered a relatively stable country in the turbulent Horn of Africa region.

President William Ruto expressed condolences, and on Thursday urged police to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.

"Those responsible must be held to account," he said in a post on X.

The motorbike passenger shot the MP at around 7:30 pm (1630 GMT) as he sat in the car on the major Ngong Road, according to eyewitnesses cited in the police statement released hours afterwards.

"The nature of this crime appears to be both targeted and premeditated," National Police Service spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga said in the statement.

After the gunman fled, the driver of the car rushed Were to Nairobi Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, Nyaga said.

Images taken of the car following the attack showed the front passenger window smashed in, with a livid bloodstain visible across the cream-coloured seat as forensic experts examined the vehicle.

Neither the driver nor a male passenger, also in the car at the time of the incident, were hurt during the attack, the police statement said.

"At this stage, it is too early to provide further details," Nyaga said.

Police officers and hospital staff carry the casket with body of Kasipul member of parliament Charles Ong'ondo Were at the Nairobi Hospital after he was shot dead by unknown gunmen riding on a motorcycle in Nairobi on April 30, 2025. The killing of a Kenyan member of parliament, Charles Ong'ondo Were, in the capital Nairobi, appeared to have been targeted, police said. The MP was shot by a passenger on a motorbike late on April 30, 2025 as he was in a car on the major Ngong Road which runs through the capital, according to eyewitnesses cited in the police statement released hours afterwards. After the gunman fled on the motorbike, the driver of the vehicle rushed Were to Nairobi hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The police service "condemns this heinous and senseless crime and will spare no effort in investigating the matter," he said.

'Son of the soil'

The speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang'ula said the killing had "robbed the nation of a distinguished legislator".

He wrote in a Facebook post late Wednesday that Were was "a fearless advocate for his constituents, and a man deeply committed to the democratic ideals and service to the people he represented".

Were was in his second term in parliament and was a member of the Orange Democratic Movement, led by veteran politician Raila Odinga.

"We have lost a gallant son of the soil," Odinga said, reacting to the news of Were's death.

Odinga challenged the results of the 2022 election which he lost to Ruto, but has entered a political alliance with the president in recent months.

Were represented the Kasipul constituency in Homa Bay county, a rural area in western Kenya.

Politicians expressed sorrow over the loss, with MP Lilian Gogo warning of "a wave of violence that is creeping up in Homa Bay politics".

"It has ended up... in a life gone of a member of parliament who is a servant of the people," she said.

In 2015 in Kenya, MP and well-known trade unionist George Muchai was killed in the capital.