The murder of Chief Nyuguto highlights the criminal past of the region

The badbadination of Kamakwa chief in Nyeri on Thursday may have shocked many people, but the memories of 39, an infamous past go back decades.

A criminal past hangs like a dark cloud over the rich and populous region that covers Gitathi-ini, Kamakwa and Kamuyu in the suburbs of Nyeri City.

More than 24 years have pbaded since the end of the infamous era of Kenya's most wanted gangsters; Gerald Wambugu Munyeria aka Wanugu and Anthony Ngugi Kanagi aka Wacucu, but their harmful activities have produced a legacy of criminal violence that clings to the area as a bad smell.

Chief Peter Kimiti Nyuguto was killed a few hours 18 a corn plantation just outside his house.

After coming home from work, he parked his motorcycle and went to the coffee plantation to check his farm.

Earlier, he had spent the day meeting with security officials in the city of Nyeri.

His widow, Anne Muthoni, said Saturday Nation that she was preparing dinner when she heard a shot.

As she rushed to check, two more shots followed before everything became silent.

"We decided to go check once the shots stopped," Ms. Muthoni said.

They found the deceased leader lying in a pool of blood next to his bike, with three gunshot wounds on his chest.

According to witnesses, the attackers were armed with two AK-47 rifles and fled on a motorcycle.

On Friday, a dark atmosphere invaded the house as burial preparations began.

The weeping men were in small groups, talking in low voices.

The widow said that the killed chief had received death threats from people who accused him of being a police informant.

Security officials say they're pursuing possible leads.

For those who knew him, Chief Kimiti was on a mission to end anarchy in his region.

He had the ear on the ground and shared information with the detectives.

Although his death may seem to have been a random attack, it is not the first of its kind that suggests that it is a plan calculated by gangsters. On February 28, residents of Kamuyu lynched two thieves who had attempted to steal a woman while she was going to work around 5 am.

In retaliation, two residents who had participated in the lynching were shot dead.

The impotent residents have since watched silently while the crime escapes control in the area.

Gangsters control the vast area between the leafy suburbs of Tetu and Nyeri, and this control has been pbaded on from one generation to the next since the time of Wanugu and Wacucu.

The two men are from Kamuyu and fired terror across the country between 1993 and 1996.

They were responsible for high-profile murders, violent robberies and carjackings.

Using a complex network of informants, they managed to escape the police for years before their luck ran out in 1996.