Police save woman from armed robbers in Mathare slums night attack

A female victim of violent robbery was last night rescued from an armed gang of three men when police on patrol within Nairobi's Mathare area swiftly responded to her distress calls.

According to a statement from the Directorate of Criminal Inestigations (DCI), the victim was walking back to her home oblivious of the gun-wielding gang lurking in the shadows at Mathare's Kiboro Bridge.

"With shopping stashed in her handbag, the lady had walked right into the jaws of the felonious pack, which subdued her immediately in an attempt to make a quick kill out of her sweat," the statement from DCI read in part.

"Luckily, Pangani-based police had been tipped off of miscreants waylaying members of the public along the bridge, and were right on sight when the scuffle between the lady and her attackers began," DCI further stated.

Police say that after beckoning the victim to a safe cover, the officers challenged the suspects to surrender, but the trio defied the lawful order.

"As two of the suspects scampered off to evade justice, the third brandished a pistol and opened fire. The wrong move invited a similar response in self-defense, a shootout that left him fatally injuredn," DCI said.

Detectives say the trail of the two suspects who flew the scene went cold but they managed to recover two machetes and the victim's handbag containing cash and shopping that was dropped as the two fled from the scene.

Police say they recovered a loaded pistol from the gunned thug and that the gun has since been handed over for ballistic examination and profiling.