A terror gang led by a suspect feigning disability has been reported in Maragua Town, Murang'a county, where it is operating about 100 metres from a police station.
Dozens of the gang’s victims complain of being lured by the suspect to secluded places where a pack of machete-armed members lie in wait.
The most remarkable narration is by Benson Mureithi, 33, who on November 25, 2022, was attacked and robbed allegedly by the gang.
He says he was dismissed as a comedian when he reported to Maragua Police about the incident, despite the incident befalling him a stone throw away from the station.
“You say that a disabled man begged you for money and when you refused to donate, he beat you up and robbed you? You say a man who has a broken hand managed to beat you up?” Mr Mureithi recalls the taunting banters from the officers before they burst out laughing and chased him away.
Yet, he insists that the ‘disabled’ man hit him hard below the left eye inflicting on him a big bump and a red eye.
“Not only that, this criminal stole from me Sh800 and threw me into the raw sewer trench that runs across Maragua town,” said Mr Mureithi who claims to be an unemployed trained primary school teacher.
Mr Mureithi has been getting casual gigs marking students' compositions and preparinge result sheets and on the fateful day had received payment.
“On that day, I had received some Sh2, 400 from three teachers I had helped…and I thought it was a good moment to celebrate their honesty since others fail to pay up,” he said.
After paying some of his bills, he says he remained with Sh800 and decided he needed to go to some reclusive den where his many friends won’t find him to nag him to buy some pints for them.
“There is this den near police lines along the sewer line and I decided it suited me fine. The time was about 3pm. A few metres to the place, I encountered the young man with the broken hand and in a sling,” he narrates.
Mr Mureithi says the man “baited me properly when he told me he had some alcohol hidden in a nearby banana plantation and which he could spare me some”.
He says that most alcoholics, at the promise of free beer, will follow you into hell “and that is exactly what I did”.
Mr Mureithi followed the fractured man for about 20 metres to a secluded spot “where I came face to face with three machete-armed male teens and my alcohol-soaked brain instantly appreciated that it had been tricked into a trap”.
He narrates that the hitherto friendly fractured man hardened his voice and demanded from him all valuables and cash.
“I tried to dash away, and it is as if he had anticipated that move…My right leg was up in the air and I felt my shirt collar held from behind,” he said.
Mr Mureithi was viciously turned as he was still held by the collar, making the shirt twist at the neck in a noose.
“Once down, I didn’t resist. I stood still as the teens ransacked my pockets. The noose that was my shirt around my neck was driving consciousness out of my head…” said Mr Mureithi.
“As a parting shot which the fractured thug declared was to make me have a brain, he hit me hard with the plaster cast on my face, sending me reeling to the ground. He kicked me on the ribs with his boot and I rolled over into the sewer trench.”
“The gang was nowhere to be seen…I zigzagged in the banana plantation and went to a nearby homestead. I was given water to bathe off the filth and also given some clothes,” he said.
Area police now say they are looking into the matter as several people have also come out to report attacks by the same gang.
