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The 25-year-old Siaya man who allegedly snatched a firearm from a traffic police officer on duty in Kisumu two weeks ago is believed to have joined a militia group after dismissal from his work place.

Police now believe that Ambrose Odero Owino joined the militia group sometimes in February last year from where he acquired weapon-handling skills after losing his job.

Investigations by police have established that Owino may have been driven into the world of violent extremism by poverty, which also deterred him from pursuing university studies despite having performed well in his end of secondary education national examination.

Bright boy

Throughout his studies, Owino is said to have been a bright boy, who always topped in his class from primary to secondary level.

But depression started eating into his life when he failed to progress to university because of lack of school fees and eventually losing a menial job at a mattress manufacturing firm in Kisumu.

Owino staged a drama two weeks ago after he opened fire indiscriminately killing two people on the spot and injured several others in an incident that saw furious mob pelt stones on him instantly terminating his life. His remains have been lying at a Kisumu morgue after the mob attack.

“Detectives had launched investigations to ascertain the whereabouts of Odero since February last year when he was shown the door by Foam Mattresses Ltd, the company that employed him until towards the end of 2019 after he failed to produce his personal documents as ordered by the National Employment Authority which was spearheading an exercise to verify workers’ testimonials at the company,” Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss George Kinoti said yesterday.

The boy whose mother Catherine Akoth Omondi described as bright is reported to have excelled in his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams in which he managed an aggregate grade of B- emerging the 7th best candidate at Sengere Secondary School in Siaya.

It has now been established that the man who was born in 1996 and completed his O-Level studies in 2016 has never applied for a national identity card.

His relatives told police that soon after completing his secondary school studies, Odero received a letter of admission to join Maseno University, but could not join the higher learning institution due to poverty.

The young man consequently left Siaya for Kisumu in search of greener pastures, where he managed to secure a job at Foam Mattresses Ltd through the help of his aunt.