NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 23 – A police officer pursued his girlfriend to a hospital in Njoro on Sunday night and shot her dead before he committed suicide, causing panic at the health facility.
The incident occurred at the Njoro Sub-County hospital where the lady identified as Mary Nyambura was seeking treatment shortly before midnight after she was allegedly assaulted by the officer.
The man identified as Police Constable Bernard Sivo is reported to have shot his lover Mary Nyambura several times as medics attended to her at the hospital.
According to the Administrator of the Sub County Hospital Timothy Maina, Nyambura had checked into the hospital with a fracture on her right leg complaining that she had been assaulted by his boyfriend.
“While being treated an armed officer entered the hospital and shot the patient severally and she died,” he said.
The officer who was on a night shift at a nearby police station then opened fire indiscriminately as officers tried to disarm and arrest him and eventually shot himself.
“The officers were mobilized to disarm him but unfortunately he shot himself on the chin and the bullet exited on the upper forehead and he died instantly,” a police officer in Nakuru said.
The bodies of the two were taken to the Egerton University mortuary.
Police in Nakuru regional headquarters said an investigation had been opened on the deaths.
Cases of police turning on each other and those of suicides have been on the increase in what has been largely attributed to their poor working conditions and others to love triangles within the service.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Edward Mbugua in July launched a mental health training with all 47 County Commanders in a bid to reduce cases of stress-related violence and suicide within the National Police Service.
