NAIROBI, Kenya — A Kenyan opposition legislator was shot dead in the capital Nairobi in what police have described as a ''targeted and premeditated'' crime.
MP Charles Were was shot on Wednesday night after his car stopped at a roundabout on a busy major road.
President Willian Ruto urged police to conduct a ''through investigation'' and said Thursday that those responsible ''must be held to account.''
Were was in the company of his driver and bodyguard when a motorcycle taxi approached their car, and a passenger disembarked and approached their car before firing at the MP, police said in a statement.
The legislator was reelected in 2022 to represent Kasipul constituency in western Kenya for the Orange Democratic Movement party.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga described Were as a ''gallant son of the soil.''
Odinga was President Ruto's main challenger in the 2022 general election.
Political tensions in Kenya have simmed down since last year, when the country saw a series of opposition-backed anti-government protests during which dozens of people died. Ruto later appointed members of Odinga's party to the cabinet and the two leaders signed a political pact in March this year.
