Following the murder of Somali-American businessman Bashir Mohammed nearly two years ago in 2021, revelations showed that he was abducted around Kilimani area and tortured for about three days.
This was the latest incident to be executed within Kilimani.
In 2020, the murder of a 28-year-old Nairobi businessman identified as Kevin Omwenga cast the area in yet another bad light.
Over the recent past, Kilimani has been gaining notoriety as a hub of drugs, crime, very mysterious murders.
In July last 2020 as well, a month before Omwenga’s murder, Sheila Njeri Murage was found murdered outside a Kilimani apartment.
Ms. Murage’s body was found in a flower bed after a night party with her friends. Reports indicated that Ms. Murage had been sexually assaulted as vaginal swabs revealed the presence of semen.
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Incidentally, Santonia Court, along Kirichwa Gardens Road, where Ms. Murage was murdered is the same apartments that a former Kenya Power employee, Careen Chepchumba, was found dead on February 12, 2012.
Careen was allegedly in a relationship with former TV news anchor Louis Otieno. Her murder was never solved.
It is also in the Kilimani area where two upscale nightclubs B Club and Kiza Lounge were based. Over the years, there have been allegations of these clubs selling more than just alcohol. The owner of Kiza Lounge, Ali Kiza, was arrested, deported and declared persona non grata.
This was after the government linked him to drugs and money laundering.
“The government has been clamping down on businesses in the area it suspects are fronts for criminal networks, drugs traffickers, racketeers and money launderers,” a report in a local daily said.
In 2019, detectives from the DCI raided Plan 254 Club in Kilimani, Nairobi, and confiscated fake US dollars amounting to Sh. 1 million plus 147 fake gold bars hidden in a safe. They arrested a number of suspects, including flamboyant personality Stephen Mark Oduk.
The rising prominent incidents of crime and drugs have also left an egg on the face of innocent residents in the area. Here is a commentary that was made by an area resident, Kiprono Kalya, on the latest cases of crime.
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“I no longer say I live and work in Kilimani… I simply give the road name like Dennis Pritt or Kirichwa, a landmark building e.g. Yaya or Mihrab or just say west of Ngong Road. I once told a friend innocently about living in Kilimani and he gave me a look.
“So I wondered what it was about. I thought I knew. I thought it’s because of Kilimani Mum’s… so I gave him unsolicited information. ‘90% of members of Kilimani pages don’t know where Kilimani is nor can afford to live in Kilimani … it’s not that ratchet,” I said.
He told me…
“Boss… it would have been better if it were ratchet. You live near drug barons, money laundering cartels, human traffickers, Chinese goons, sex dens masquerading as spas etc.”
“It was my turn to give him a stern look. With the Chris Obure shooting incident in an upmarket serviced apartment this weekend, dang… I do live and work in 1970’s Hong Kong, Kenya version. Dude was right.
“Raising your kids in Kilimani isn’t a good idea. You have absolutely no clue who your neighbor is… So as I now seek to move to an innocent place such as the heart of Tsavo… I henceforth disown Kilimani. I don’t know where that is,” said Kalya.
