Police in Mombasa say they are following significant leads after gunmen raided a county cess collection point in Likoni before dawn on Monday, killing an inspectorate officer and taking an AK-47 rifle. The dead officer was named as Omar Rashid Mzerera, reported to have been in his mid-thirties. According to The Star, Kenya, the attack happened at about 3.40 am.
Mombasa County Commissioner Mohamed Nur said the raiders took nothing apart from the firearm, a detail that has prompted questions about what they were after.
Why it matters
The raid left one officer dead, two others wounded and a government weapon in the hands of an armed group. It has also drawn attention to security in Likoni at a time when national attention is fixed on the run-up to the 2027 General Election. Local leaders say the killing has brought back memories of earlier violence in the area and could affect confidence in planned development projects.
What the police account says
A police signal from Inuka Police Station, cited in the reporting, describes how the attack unfolded. Two Administration Police officers were on duty at the cess point together with county inspectorate staff when the gang arrived. The officers fired warning shots in an effort to scatter the group but were overwhelmed.
The signal states that the attackers seized an AK-47 from an officer identified as APC Wilfred Amin, who suffered deep cuts to one hand and a gunshot wound to his left thigh. Mzerera was shot in the back, and the bullet came out through his chest, according to the same account. A second inspectorate officer, Ali Kibuyi, was badly cut on the head and right thigh. A third, Bahiya Hassan, was unhurt.
The wounded were first taken to Diani Beach Hospital and later moved to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital. Mzerera's body was placed in the hospital mortuary while funeral arrangements are made. The Star, Kenya reports that he is to be buried in the Mbungoni area of Nyali Sub-County under Islamic rites.
Officials question the motive
Commissioner Nur confirmed that the gang did not remove any other property from the site. Governor Abdulswamad Nassir raised the same point when he visited the injured officers, noting that the facility handles payments digitally and that computers, mobile phones and personal wallets were left behind.
"We are asking the police to get to the bottom of it because nothing was stolen," Nassir said, according to The Star, Kenya. He added that the firearm was the only item taken but said it was not for him to draw conclusions about why.
Likoni MP Mishi Mboko made a similar observation, saying the cess point is known not to keep cash because payments are made electronically. She said that if money had been held there, the raid might have looked like a robbery, but that nothing besides the rifle was carried away.
Nassir said the injured officers were in stable condition and promised that the county would support them and the family of the deceased, including making sure they receive the treatment they need and can return to work once their health allows.
CCTV gap and a search for witnesses
Nur said the CCTV camera at the container that serves as the cess point office was not functioning at the time of the raid. Investigators are instead looking for footage from cameras in nearby locations that may have recorded the attackers' movements.
The commissioner appealed to residents to come forward with any information that could help identify those responsible. He acknowledged conflicting accounts of the size of the group, saying some people put it at about 40 and others at about 20, but stressed that such a large body of people must have passed through the surrounding area.
He said recovering the missing rifle is a priority and gave an assurance that arrests would be made. "A government rifle cannot go that way. And we value human life and it will not go in vain," Nur said, as reported by The Star, Kenya. He also sought to calm residents and visitors, describing the raid as an isolated incident that should not cause widespread alarm.
Calls for better security
Mboko urged security agencies to sharpen their response to crime in the area and said the raid warranted a full investigation. She said the killing had revived difficult memories of past security incidents in Likoni and called for the matter to be addressed before the 2027 polls. She warned that persistent insecurity could hold back projects planned for the area, including the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone and the Mombasa Gateway Bridge.
Nominated Senator Miraj Abdillahi focused on lighting, saying she had raised questions before about the state of street lights around the cess point. Human rights activist Francis Auma called on the security services to improve intelligence gathering as the country moves toward the election, while cautioning against using the attack as a reason to target residents unfairly.
The Star, Kenya reported that the gang was described as numbering about ten and armed with machetes, while other accounts of the same incident varied in the details they gave.
What happens next will hinge on whether investigators can recover the stolen rifle and identify the raiders, with the county and national government under pressure to show visible progress on both.
