By STEPHEN MUIRURI 
and MUGUMO MUNENE 

A Kenya Airways driver was yesterday fighting for his life after he was shot and critically injured by two gunmen posing as hand-cart pushers.

The Nairobi Hospital's chief executive, Mr Andrew Stenton, said the driver, Mr Meshack Muthama, underwent a successful surgical operation to remove a bullet lodged in the head.

"His condition is critical but stable. He is in the intensive care unit," he said.

Mr Muthama is the latest Kenya Airways employee to be attacked while on duty in the past two weeks. A workers' protest against an attack on colleagues returning home from night shift a week ago disrupted flights out of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi.

Two women, who were gang-raped during the attack, are still in hospital.

The latest attack occurred when Mr Muthama was going to pick up employees at Eastleigh Estate at 4am yesterday. The two workers he had already picked lost a total of Sh14,800 and $100.

His vehicle was blocked with a handcart, police said.

Mr Muthama was shot a few metres from the residential flats he was going to pick the other workers in Eastleigh Section Three estate.

Police said the same gang had earlier ambushed a Kenya Television Network driver at the same spot and robbed him of money. They left the two vehicles and the victims at the scene and fled towards the neighbouring Kimathi Estate. Only the airline driver was injured.