On June 19, 2025, Harriet Bangibasa filed an application at the Makueni High Court to halve her Sh1 million bond. She and five other individuals had been accused of murdering David Obenda Auka on January 15, 2025, during a robbery gone wrong.
Bangibasa holds a Ugandan passport, and no document to indicate that she is Kenyan.
In declining to halve the bond terms, the court noted that there was collusion between her and a probation officer who had written a report that was “not entirely truthful” to trick her way into release.
The first bail report was rejected by the judge, and the second one claimed that Bangibasa is Kenyan, despite her not having any documents to indicate as much. In the second report dated June 3, 2025, the probation officer did not oppose Bangibasa’s release.
“Giving inaccurate information about herself, some of it outrightly false, with the apparent collusion of the Probation Officer, created a situation where the court formed the view that the accused was a flight risk. I am not persuaded that there is any reason to review the bond terms,” the Makueni High Court said in a ruling dated July 16, 2025.
For police officers in Makueni, it is such collusion between suspects and judicial officers that has allowed violent gangs to thrive in the county. But according to judicial officers at Makindu Law Courts, which is handling several cases involving highway robberies, police should stick to their lane and arrest criminals, and leave trial and bail matters to the courts.
Until three weeks ago, Timothy Kyalo moved in and around Mtito Andei Township in Makueni County on a motorcycle hawking milk. Two bullets from a suspected robber’s gun on the evening of June 19 shattered his life and livelihood. The father of five has since turned to begging.
A truck drives through Migingo area in Mtito Andei Town in Makueni County.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
“I was in the process of calling the Mtito Andei police commander to save us when the first bullet hit my face,” Mr Kyalo recalled during a recent interview.
Makueni County has recorded a spike in armed robbery incidents, targeting cargo transporters, newly imported cars and residents in several towns.
Investigations and court cases now reveal that armed gangs target cargo transporters along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and move into towns during the “low” season when there is less movement of goods, or police patrols deter attacks.
Titus Mutinda during an interview with Nation at Makindu Sub-County Hospital in Makueni County on July 3, 2026. He is nursing a gunshot wound sustained during a recent attack by armed robbers in the region.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
In one of the latest incidents, boda boda operator Titus Mutinda sustained gunshot wounds after a gang of four fired at a crowd that had thwarted a break-in attempt in a homestead in Miangeni village on the fringes of Mtito Andei township. The crowd had deflated the tyres of the suspected robbers’ car to immobilise it.
Mercy Syokau Kilonzo, a Kitui woman who owns the Toyota NZE car bearing registration number KBX 323A, is at the centre of an investigation by detectives to identify and arrest the armed robbers. Detectives believe the car is also key to getting to the bottom of a string of armed robbery incidents that have rocked Mtito Andei.
They tie the spike in reported gun attacks to marauding gangs of highway robbers who terrorise motorists along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway. When they are not hijacking vehicles, the gangs, which operate between Voi and Kibwezi townships, break into homes and shops.
Some of the suspects facing highway robbery cases at the Makindu law courts are separately accused of stealing livestock.
“Kambu has never been more insecure,” said John Mbokoyo, the chairman of an association for the area’s business community. “Traders are calling for a total overhaul of the security apparatus in this region. It looks like the police are either overwhelmed or have deliberately created an enabling environment for armed attacks to thrive,” he said on the day police recovered the body of a taxi driver from an abandoned well on the outskirts of Kambu township.
In early June, a gang of armed robbers flagged down a matatu near Kambu and opened fire on passengers. A single bullet, which entered Paul Ndolo through the right hip joint, emerged from around the pelvis region and entered Ndinda Kimilu, another passenger, in the stomach. They survived the gun attack. Ms Kimilu, however, lost a four-month pregnancy. She also lost Sh83,000 to the robbers.
Redempta Ndinda during an interview with Nation at the Makindu Sub-county Hospital in Makueni County on June 12, 2016. She survived a gun attack but lost her pregnancy when robbers attacked a matatu near Kambu Township in Makueni County.
Photo credit: Pius Maundu | Nation Media Group
“We strongly believe that the gun used to attack passengers in the matatu is the same gun that a highway robber used to gun down an accomplice as they attempted to hijack a high-end vehicle near Kambu,” Ms Matundura said.
She was referring to a dramatic incident in which an unknown person gunned down Gift Muia as they attempted to hijack a car.
Ms Matundura is among police bosses who believe that the criminals come from the affected region. A review of court documents at the Makindu law courts lent credence to her theory.
The documents shine a spotlight on Kwa Kinyuti, a sleepy village tucked between Kambu and Mtito Andei townships. It produced some of the most notorious highway robbers who terrorised motorists in the section of the Mombasa-Nairobi highway that passes through the region until the 1990s. It is now also home to many suspects facing robbery with violence charges in the courts.
Patrick Mutua Mutuku, alias Nzuki Wakanyangole, is charged alongside his five neighbours in Kwa Kinyuti with hijacking a newly imported car and killing its driver in 2020. The other suspects are Isaac Mutiso Muli, Brian Nzuve and Harrison Mutua Munywoki, who is described as “a very dangerous person” and “a serious threat to the community” in court documents.
The case took a fresh twist last week after Nzuve moved to testify against the other suspects in a plea-bargain. The court is set to sentence Nzuve on July 22.
Kibwezi Sub-county DCIO Charles Inoti believes the armed robbery incidents would have been reduced if law courts had denied the suspects bail and bond. He said robbery suspects are arrested and shortly after freed on bail or bond.
“We have a big problem with our courts, which continue to release armed robbery offenders. Many of the released offenders end up committing fresh crimes,” Mr Inoti told the Nation in an interview.
However, court officials dismissed the notion.
“An accused person has a constitutional right to bail and bond depending on the prevailing circumstances. The police should arrest individuals suspected of having committed a crime. Police officers should play their role,” said Makindu law courts administrator Jefferson Musyoka.
In 2024, police officers at the Kibwezi Police Station implicated two colleagues in armed robbery incidents. The move by the National Police Service to transfer bosses at the station restored hope in ending a rising robbery crime wave.
Expectations for better security went up in the same year when the government carved out Kambu sub-county from the larger Kibwezi sub-county. The expectations were palpable when the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki , graced a ceremony to make Kambu township the headquarters of the new administrative unit. Two years later, however, armed robbery incidents have remained a thorn in the flesh of residents.
“We are back to the dark days,” Mr Mbokoyo said, referring to a period when highway robbery was high. Vicious gangs armed with crude weapons used spikes and stones to force targeted transport vehicles to stop before escorting them to secluded places and transferring the cargo to other vehicles.
In response, the government diverted a section of the Mombasa-Nairobi highway that passes through Hillside, Kwa Kithokoi, Kwa Kinyuti, Kambu and Machinery townships in a bid to end the crime. It also expanded the highway, and police intensified patrols and arrests.
A man who miraculously evaded the hangman’s noose after he was convicted of robbery with violence has now become a champion against the vice.
Jackson Muia, who was popularly known as Bouncer during his criminal heydays, now operates a vibrant car washing service in Machinery township. The community helped him to set it up after he was freed.
“We should shun highway robbery. It does not pay. The bulk of highway robbery proceeds go towards buying freedom from the police,” he told the Nation recently.
Tellingly, Mr Muia’s campaign has landed on deaf ears. Vicious gangs of armed robbers have continued to terrorise motorists. Their bag of tricks includes posing as police officers to flag down targeted vehicles.
Attackers targeting newly imported cars often pose as stranded passengers, only to turn against the drivers who offer to assist them.
When Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen took over from Prof Kindiki, he acknowledged that highway robbery was the main crime in Makueni County. He said the national government was committed to tackling the crime when he convened a security forum in the county last year.
The crime has, however, continued unabated, with more than 120 cases reported.
The runaway armed robbery incidents in Kambu have left behind a devastating toll that extends beyond the region.
A Nairobi businessman is among scores who have suffered losses as Makueni County grapples with a spike in highway robbery. Mahmud Mohammed Abdi lost 500 bags of rice worth Sh1.9 million when a gang of highway robbers hijacked his lorry near Kibwezi township on December 23, 2024.
By the time the bullet hit him, Gift was set to appear at the Makindu law courts, where he was charged alongside Alex Mweti Kasina and Jamleck Muli Muasa in connection with the theft of Mr Mohammed’s rice.
