A pistol recovered at the weekend from three lynched suspects was stolen from a police officer in 2019, police have said.
The Jericho pistol had been stolen from an officer in Parklands, Nairobi, after he was stupefied.
The officer, who was then based at Riruta police station, was found on the roadside unconscious and the weapon missing.
Nairobi police boss James Mugera said they had confirmed the pistol belongs to the service.
The weapon was at the weekend recovered when three suspects were lynched by a mob after robbing an M-Pesa attendant of Sh900,000 and a laptop in Marurui on the Northern Bypass.
Police and witnesses said the three robbed Joseph Nganga at gunpoint at about 10 pm at his shop near a petrol station and jumped onto a waiting motorcycle before speeding off.
The owner raised the alarm and chased them using a car on the Northern Bypass towards Kiambu. A mob stopped the three on the motorcycle and stoned them to death.
Police who arrived at the scene said they recovered a Jericho pistol and nine bullets. They said they did not recover the money that had been stolen from the victim.
The bodies were taken to the mortuary for identification and postmortem. Police discourage mob lynching and term it criminal. They urge members of the public to surrender suspects to the police.
Cases of mob lynching have been on the rise in the past few days. Police records show up to two cases are reported daily, especially in the city.
This, according to other scholars, is an indication of a broken criminal justice system and calls for urgent address.
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