After a spate of robberies, carjackings, and murders in Nairobi and Nakuru Counties, luck has finally run out for a deadly six-man gang believed to be behind a car theft syndicate.
Five members of the gang are in police custody following a successful sting operation by a multi-agency team of law enforcers.
The arrested suspects have been linked to a spate of violent carjackings and burglaries that have recently been reported in Nakuru.
The incidents include one that happened on February 23, 2024, when a 38-year-old driver was robbed and sexually molested at Punda Milia section of the Nakuru-Nairobi highway in Gilgil.
According to investigators, the six-man gang tied up their victim before disabling his vehicle’s tracking system and fleeing with it.
Before that incident, the gang is believed to have robbed a lorry driver of his vehicle in Elementaita area after they made their victim believe that they wanted to hire his services.
The driver reported the matter at Elementaita Police Station in Gilgil, before being taken to Gilgil sub-County hospital for treatment.
But perhaps the most shocking incident linked to the gang was a burglary at the home of a Naivasha resident who was held hostage, together with her children, in her home for five hours by the armed assailants on the night of February 13, 2024.
Last week, the woman, Ms Nelly Kosgei, gave a chilling account of her ordeal at the hands of the armed gangsters who stormed her house shortly after she arrived home from work and tormented her for five long hours.
The gangsters only left after robbing her of two TV sets, two laptops, a sound bar, and four mobile phones among other assorted household items valued at hundreds of thousands of shillings.
The gangsters also helped themselves to food that they found in the house before fleeing with the victim’s car – a Nissan Dualis.
According to detectives, the gangsters subdued Ms Kosgei and her family while issuing threats that they would kill them.
“The gang then loaded the stolen valuables in the complainant’s Nissan Dualis and sped off. Luckily, no one was injured during the incident,” the DCI said.
The Nation has established that the case was taken up by DCI officers in Naivasha, who launched a manhunt for the suspects in their area of jurisdiction.
The detectives scaled up the search by enlisting the services of officers from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) and the Operations Action Team (OAT).
Nelly Kosgei during the interview with the Nation at Naivasha Police Station on February 26, 2024.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
After days of relentless pursuit and forensic analysis of all possible intelligence leads, on February 24, 2024, detectives laid an ambush and cornered one of the suspects in Bahati, Nakuru County.
“On verifying the vehicle’s chassis and engine number, we established that it was registered under the name Nelly Cherop Kosgei, and the fitted number plates belonged to a lorry,” the DCI.
Also recovered from the suspect were six sim cards, a pair of jungle green trousers, pliers, 14 steel tyre nuts, aerosol paint spray, a brown folded carton for carrying extra car registration plates and foreign currencies comprising South African Rand, Mauritius Rupees and Uganda Shillings.
The same night of the suspect’s arrest, around 2:40am, detectives laid another ambush and arrested two suspects on board a Mitsubishi FH truck which was being driven towards Njoro town.
Nelly Kosgei during the interview with the Nation at Naivasha Police Station on February 26, 2024.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
The two suspects were found in possession of car number plates which the police later established belonged to a bus.
The suspects revealed that they had been on their way to meet with two other accomplices in Njoro town, where they were to change the truck’s registration plates and then drive across the Kenya-Uganda border.
Acting on this information, detectives nabbed two more suspects at a hardware in Njoro town as they attempted to contact their accomplices who had been arrested earlier on, bringing to five the arrested suspects.
Several incidents of car thefts have recently been reported in Nairobi, Nakuru, Narok, Bomet, Kericho and Baringo Counties.
Tens of motorists have lost their vehicles in recent months in Nakuru, Naivasha, Njoro, Molo, Bahati and Gilgil.
Often, the carjackers will pose as clients seeking to hire vehicles before robbing their unsuspecting victims and getting away with the stolen car. Most of these vehicles are yet to be recovered.
The criminals appear to prefer Toyota Probox, Toyota Axio, Toyota Fielder and Mazda Demio as per the recent cases of car thefts reported in Nakuru County.
The Nation has also established that in most cases, the criminals disable the stolen cars’ tracking systems before they get away.
Meanwhile, following the arrest of the five suspects, some residents of Nakuru town have called on security agencies to scale up the crackdown on criminals behind the car theft syndicate.
“We are living in fear of losing our vehicles. We are calling on police to investigate and arrest criminals behind these incidents,” said Mr Peter Kimani, a resident of Nakuru town.
