Night Guard Found Dead Amidst Series Of Robberies In Embu Town

EMBU, Kenya, Jun 29 – Ephantus Njeru, a 65 year-old old night guard was found dead on Tuesday morning at a local pub he was manning in Embu town, following a series of burglaries the previous night.

The deceased body was found by the proprietor of the pub when she reported to work. 

At the scene of crime, preliminary reports indicated that seven other shops at the business complex were also broken into by the unknown assailants who stole money and goods worth millions of shillings.

Margaret Gikandi, the owner of the pub told Shahidi News that cases of robberies have been on the increase in recent weeks.

“Why did they have to kill Ephantus?” posed a teary Margaret,. “They should simply have stolen what the came for and left him alive. This pain is too much to bear”

Gikandi said that she has fallen victim to criminals who have in the past several months stolen from her pub at least four times, despite assurances from officers that security had been heightened in the busy town.

Other proprietors who found their shops and stores broken into blamed police for laxity posing questions as to how seven shops could have been robbed of their wares while a curfew was in place.

“The killing of Ephantus is a brutal act we will not forget. I am however wondering, a curfew is in place, police say they are patrolling the streets, then how did they do this to us? These criminals clearly had a lot of time to break into all these stores,” said James Murithi, a businessman in the area.

Locals have now threatened to take action into their own hands if the recent cases of insecurity are not addressed soon.

“The government tells us that we should be at home by 10pm and that our businesses are protected, what happened last night was just a case of security apparatus sleeping on the job. We need to know if these criminals are among us or have come from somewhere else,” said Nathan Karikuki, a businessman.

Embu West Sub-County police Commander said that investigations are already underway.

The body of the deceased is being preserved at the Embu level five hospital.