NAIROBI, Kenya – Prominent Nairobi lawyer Mathew Kyalo Mbobu was on Tuesday evening shot dead by gunmen along Lang’ata Road in Nairobi, in an attack that police say bore the hallmarks of a targeted killing.
Mbobu, a senior partner at Kyalo & Associates Advocates and a former chairperson of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, was gunned down around 7:30 pm near the Galleria–Brookhouse roundabout as he drove home in his Toyota Land Cruiser V8.
According to witnesses and police, two assailants on a motorcycle pulled alongside his vehicle in traffic and opened fire at close range, shattering the windshield before striking him at least three times in the chin.
His body remained slumped in the driver’s seat as police cordoned off the scene, less than a kilometre from Galleria Mall. The attackers sped off and remain at large.
Distinguished career
Mbobu was also a lecturer at Multimedia University and a celebrated author.
He previously served as chair of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal in the lead-up to the 2022 General Election, where he handled a raft of high-profile political disputes.
Police are investigating the motive behind the attack, with detectives not ruling out a possible link to his legal and public service work.
The brazen killing follows a pattern of motorcycle-riding gunmen targeting high-profile figures in Nairobi.
Security officials noted similarities to the assassination of former Kasipul Kabondo MP Charles Ong’ondo Were, who was also shot by attackers on a boda boda.
No arrests had been made by late Tuesday night, as homicide and forensic teams scoured the scene for evidence.
