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Detectives arrested a suspect on Wednesday afternoon in connection with a gun stolen from a Hurligham car wash on Tuesday.
The gun's owner, a civilian firearms holder, told police he had taken his car to be washed but returned to find his pistol, loaded with 15 bullets, missing.
Police officers called to the scene examined CCTV footage in the yard, which showed an attendant removing the pistol from the car and concealing it beneath an overall suit he was wearing.
He later walked out of the gate wearing the overall, which was against the car wash's rules.
“Attendants are supposed to remove and leave their overalls when signing out or leaving the yard,” management said.
The suspect failed to report for work the next day as police searched for him.
Police later tracked him down and arrested him along Loita Street in the Central Business District (CBD), where police believe he was planning to hand over the gun to an accomplice.
“The suspect had reportedly sold seven bullets from the pistol. When it went missing, it had 15 bullets, but when it was recovered, it had eight,” police said.
Police say the safekeeping of such weapons is key to a civilian being granted a permit to own a gun.
The rules state that guns should be kept within the owner’s sight at all times or in a safe in the house.
Nairobi police chief Adamson Bungei said the law was clear on the handling of weapons, whether by police officers or licensed gun owners.
“The law says the weapon should be in the physical presence of the holder. That means at the waist or in a safe in the house. Keeping a weapon in the car in the holder’s absence is contrary to the law,” he said.