DCI Ramps Up Investigation Into Daring Watamu Mall Armed Raid Caught on CCTV

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has moved with urgency to unravel the circumstances surrounding a daring armed attack at Watamu Mall in the coastal tourist town, after CCTV surveillance cameras recorded four masked men executing a rapid strike at the busy shopping complex in broad daylight. The footage has provided investigators with crucial material as they pursue the perpetrators.

DCI Director Amin Mohamed has personally thrown his weight behind the probe, directing officers to "urgently track down and arrest the suspects involved in the incident." The directive underscores the gravity with which the agency is treating the assault. The attack unfolded at around 4:00 pm when the four-man gang rode into the premises on motorcycles and stormed into the shopping complex.

The raid itself was startlingly brief, lasting no more than one minute. Within that time, the armed men discharged warning shots, triggering immediate panic among shoppers and workers who fled in every direction seeking safety. What stood out to investigators, however, was the gang's apparent indifference to the most obvious targets of robbery inside the mall. A bank branch, a mobile phone outlet, and a supermarket were all present — yet none were touched.

Instead, the attackers moved with purpose directly to a restaurant within the mall. Witness statements collected by detectives reveal that the gunmen zeroed in on a specific table where customers had been seated just moments before they arrived. The deliberate nature of this movement has convinced investigators that whoever was behind the attack had a predetermined target in mind from the outset.

That conclusion has opened a potentially significant line of inquiry. Authorities are now probing a possible link between the assault and Joel, an Irish-American businessman entangled in a contentious Sh79 million fraud dispute with his estranged wife, Martha Shiro. The case has been ongoing, and detectives are working to establish whether the restaurant attack was connected to this high-stakes financial fallout between the two parties.

Following the incident, security has been stepped up considerably across Watamu, a coastal hotspot that draws both domestic and international tourists in large numbers. The DCI chief has publicly pledged that those found culpable will face the full force of the law, as officers continue actively pursuing multiple leads in what is shaping up to be one of the more calculated criminal incidents seen along the Kenyan coast in recent times.