A Kenyan opposition legislator was shot dead in the capital Nairobi in what police have described as a “targeted and premeditated” crime.

MP Charles Were was shot on Wednesday night after his car stopped at a roundabout on a busy major road, about two kilometres south of the central business district.

Were was in the company of his driver and bodyguard when a motorcycle taxi approached their car and a passenger disembarked and approached their car before firing at the MP, police said in a statement.

The legislator was re-elected in 2022 to represent Kasipul constituency in Lake Victoria Basin on Orange Democratic Movement party.

The spot at which the MP Were was killed is a section of a two-kilometre stretch from Kenyatta National Hospital to Adams Arcade on busy Ngong Road that has witnessed some of the most heinous murders of prominent people.

In 2004, Mathare MP-elect, Dr Frederick Masinde was assassinated at metres away from the Mbagathi Roundabout where Were met his death. Then 10 years later in 2014, another MP-elect Melitus Mugabe Were was killed near there.

Earlier, university don, Dr Odhiambo Mbai was assassinated at his house, less than two kilometre away from the ‘MPs black spot’. Dr Mbai, was one of eminent Kenyans drafted the 2010 Constitution and is credited with devolved governance.

In 2014, Speaker of National Assembly, then MP for Sirisia, claimed he had been a target of armed attack at the spot. This was three years before Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu was attacked by gunmen who killed his security detail.

On May 1, President Willian Ruto urged police to conduct a “thorough investigation” and said on Thursday that those responsible “must be held to account.”

Opposition leader Raila Odinga described Were as a “gallant son of the soil.” Odinga was President Ruto’s main challenger in the 2022 general election.

Political tensions in Kenya have simmered down since last year when the country saw a series of opposition-backed anti-government protests during which dozens of people died. Ruto later appointed members of Odinga’s party to the cabinet and the two leaders signed a political pact in March this year.

• A Tell Media / AP report