Gun fired as officer disarms colleague in bar fight with girlfriend

An officer attached to the anti-mugging squad was on Sunday morning disarmed and arrested after he fought with the girlfriend and fired one round of ammunition in a bar.

Constable Walter Guantai of Pangani Police Station but attached to OCPD Central was at Tabs Club in Umoja when he started fighting the girlfriend who police have identified as Caroline Gathambi.

A senior officer attached to the Kenya Copyright Board, who was also in the same bar, managed to disarm him before senior officers went to the scene.

The Ceska pistol, 14 rounds of ammunition and a spent cartridge have been kept as exhibits.

Police headquarters said the officer was likely to be dealt with departmentally, under the Orderly Room Proceedings.

Section 1(o) of the Eighth Schedule of the National Police Service Act prohibits discharging any weapon without orders or without reasonable lawful cause.

It was not clear why the officer was armed while off duty.

Following a surge in police misconduct and involvement in criminal and corrupt activities, the Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai last week directed that all officers will be in uniform and must return all the firearms to the armoury after their duty shift.

The IG, however, later clarified that if the nature of operation to be conducted by the officers requires that they operate undercover, the officers will be allowed to wear civilian clothes.

“If there is need to perform an operation and it is considered conducting the operation in uniform will compromise the success of the operation, the commander will authorise the wearing of plain clothes during the period of operation and immediately after the operation revert to uniform,” Police Headquarters directed.