A police officer was rescued on Monday afternoon after he tried to take his own life at his home in Ongata Rongai after allegedly losing his service weapon.
The officer is the police inspector in charge of a police post in Kariobangi had earlier been reported missing is said to have come back home on Sunday morning June 16, and told his wife that he had lost his official Ceska pistol loaded with 15 bullets in unclear circumstances.
According to a police report, his wife said the officer looked stressed when he came home and that he could not remember how he lost his gun.
“He excused himself and went to the family washing area where he swallowed poison,” the report read in part.
He was later found struggling after allegedly swallowing the poison and was rushed to hospital where he was admitted in stable condition.
Police later visited the house and started launched a search for the missing weapon which is yet to be recovered.
“We will be revisiting places where the officer visited in the past hours leading to his attempted suicide,” police said.
In September 2023, a junior police officer based in Nyeri County went missing with his brother who resided with him within the police station armed with a government-issued gun.
The police constable posted to Kiaruhiu police station in Mathira East sub-county allegedly failed to return the gun loaded with 20 rounds of ammunition issued to him by the armoury officer after his night patrol.
According to a police incident report, the incident happened when a senior sergeant reported that he had asked three officers to renew their firearms issued to them, two officers complied but one of their colleagues did not comply.
“The sergeant insisted the officer bring the gun but instead went missing and switched off his mobile phone”, said part of the report.
In another incident in 2022, a police officer was arrested by his colleagues after he went to report he had lost his pistol while riding on a motorcycle in Nairobi.
The junior officer is said to have lost his pistol with 14 rounds of ammunition in Industrial Area.
In a statement, the officer said that it dropped off a holster as he rode on a motorcycle.
Police at the time said that they were investigating the incident to take further action on the officer even as the search for the gun went on.
The arrest come a month after a gun that was used in a shooting incident at Mirema Springs in Nairobi’s Roysambu neighbourhood where a man was shot dead in broad daylight was discovered to have belonged to a police officer.
According to DCI, the single firearm was stolen from a police officer and had been used to terrorise members of the public within and outside Nairobi.
