Detectives arrest 5 robbers involved in complex network of vehicles theft

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested 5 members of a dangerous gang involved in vehicles theft in different parts of the county.

This follows numerous complaints from members of the public who were robbed off their vehicles and other valuables.

“At 3am on Valentine Day, police at Naivasha Police Station received a distressed female reportee from Mirera estate who had been accosted by a five-man gang at her house and held hostage from 9pm to 2am the same night,” read part of DCI statement.

The victim, Ms Nelly Cherop Kosgei reported that she was at her house with her two kids and the house help, when five men, four of whom were dressed in jungle uniforms, stormed into the house while armed with crude weapons.

After subduing the family with threats to kill if they raised alarm, they ransacked the house for valuables before disappearing with two TV sets, two laptops, a JBL sound bar and four mobile phones.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Headquarters along Kiambu road. PHOTO: File

The gang had then loaded the valuables in the complainant’s Nissan Dualis Reg. No. KDC 302V and sped off. Luckily, no one was physically harmed during the incident.

“The robbery case was taken over by DCI Naivasha detectives who fruitlessly searched for the perpetrators in their area of jurisdiction, thus calling upon the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau (CRIB) team based at DCI Headquarters to assist in the pursuit.

“The team hit the ground augmented by the Operations Action Team (OAT),” stated DCI.

After days of relentless pursuit by forensically analysing all possible intelligence leads, detectives proceeded to Nakuru North where they laid an ambush at Kiamunyeki area, successfully cornering one suspect namely Joseph Ndung’u Waweru.

In his possession was a black Nissan Dualis fitted with plates Reg. No. KDE 074Q. On verifying the chassis and engine numbers of the vehicle, it was discovered to have been registered under the names of Nelly Cherop Kosgei, and that the fitted plates belonged to a lorry.

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 of different denominations including South African rand, Mauritius rupees and Uganda shillings.

After interrogation, detectives run a profiling on the arrested suspect, finding more leads to his accomplices.

On the same night of February 24 at around 2.40am, the crime researchers backed up by their Nakuru counterparts laid another ambush on two suspects on board a Mitsubishi FH truck which was being driven towards Njoro town.

Upon intercepting the vehicle reg. No. KCB 383Z, Evans Mwangi Njenga, 45 and Geoffrey Kamau Hinga, 53 were nabbed, where on searching the truck another pair of Reg. no. plates (KCK 616G) were discovered.

A verification of the discovered plates revealed that they belonged to a bus.

The two suspects were equally interrogated, where the detectives learnt that they were to meet with two other accomplices in Njoro town, where they were to change the truck’s registration plates and escort it across the Kenya – Uganda border.

Hence, a third ambush was laid at a hardware in Njoro town, and two more suspects, Peter Mahinyo Wanyoike, 45 and Julius Gichagu Wanguno aged 32 were arrested when they came calling out Mwangi and Kamau.

This made five the total number of suspects rounded up in the manhunt.

In the developments, it was discovered that the FH lorry they had intercepted had been reported robbed from a victim at Elementaita Police Station in Gilgil, when the gang turned against the driver they had hired to offer transport services.

The 38-year-old driver had been robbed, sexually molested and left tied up at Punda Milia section on February 23 by a 6-man gang, who then disabled the vehicle’s tracker and disappeared.

With the driver’s report indicating the involvement of a sixth suspect, the sleuths are hotly pursuing him until the entire syndicate is neutralized.