Kenyan Lawmaker Is Shot Dead by Motorcycle-Riding Assailant

A Kenyan legislator was awarded in a busy street of Nairobi by a murderer leading to motorcycles on Wednesday night, in what the police described as a “directed and premeditated” attack.

The legislator, Charles, who was fulfilling a second term in Parliament, was in a vehicle stopped at a traffic light when he was killed, police said. The witnesses reported that a person driving on the back of a motorcycle waited and shot next to Mr. Were’s car before being carried by the motorcycle driver, police said.

A reason was not clear immediately. Muchiri Nyaga, a police spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday that it was too early for authorities to provide additional details.

President William Ruto de Kenia asked the Police to “conduct an exhaustive investigation” and expressed his condolences to Mr. Were’s family. “That answer must be a hero to account,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

Police said the driver and another passenger in the car were unharmed in the shooting and quickly led Mr. Were to Nairobi Hospital, where he was a pronounced arrival of Urdon.

Mr. was re -elected to Parliament in 2022 as a member of the Orange Democratic Movement, the opposition party led by Raila Odinga, the main rival of Mr. Ruto in the previous general elections.

Mr. Odinga, in a statement on Thursday, compared the daytime shooting with “an execution in the style of the gang” that was “surprisingly barbarian.”

Kenya has a reputation as a relatively stable nation in a volatile region. The frustration with the government reached a new maximum last year. The boxes of people were kidnapped or arbitrarily detained by security forces, according to activists and human rights groups.

Mr. Ruto published the increase in taxes as a necessary measure to stop the astonishing debt of the country.

A rich business man who grew poor, Mr. Ruto campaigned on a platform to improve the economy for Kenyans. His critics say that had not happened.

Abdi Latif Dahir Contributed reports.