Highway robbery fears resurface after string of attacks on transporters

Increased arrest of individuals linked to muggings along major highways in recent months has ignited fears of the return of highway robberies in the country.

In the latest case, five suspects were arrested during an operation targeting a highway robbery gang that has been targeting motorists along the Thika–Nyeri and Thika–Embu Highways.

Detectives from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau, the Operations Assist Team, and DCI Gatanga launched the operation following a series of violent robberies targeting goods transporters along both highways.

In one major incident that occurred on October 8, a driver ferrying 450 bales of Raha Premium maize flour from Jomax Millers Limited to Nairobi was attacked and dumped miles away. His vehicle was later found abandoned in Njiru, Nairobi, stripped of its cargo.

Days later, the same gang attempted to rob another Jomax Miller's truck, this time posing as Kenya Revenue Authority officials. Detectives said that the vigilant driver, aware of the earlier attack, managed to escape.

In yet another case, a truck driver transporting sh5.4 million worth of Colgate products from Nairobi to Embu was similarly attacked and left stranded in Ndarugu near Witeithie. His goods were later recovered in a building in Embu

Following the incidents, the team launched a sting operation that led to the arrest of Festus Kandiki Kanyaru in Ruiru, who the police said confessed to being part of a gang that stole maize and sold 400 bales to a businessman in Eastleigh.

The police said Kandiki also confessed the identities of his three accomplices, one of whom, identified as Stanley Bundi Kaumbiri alias Bamu, was arrested the next day at his miraa shop in South B.

A follow-up search at a house in Pipeline recovered items believed to be used in the crimes, including toy pistols, military fatigues, handcuffs, and a Maasai whip.

On Tuesday, three more individuals, Khalid Abdirahman Mohammed, Shueb Ahmed Hussein, and Yusuf Nur Abdullahi, were arrested in Eastleigh for handling the stolen maize flour as detectives recovered two bales of the consignment from a store in the area.

"The operation was launched in response to two similar robbery cases reported at Kutus and Wanguru Police Stations, where drivers were ambushed by men posing as police officers. The gang, often dressed in jungle fatigues and reflector jackets, flagged down lorries under the guise of routine checks before assaulting drivers, handcuffing them, and locking them in car trunks. The stolen vehicles and goods would then be driven away and empty lorries later abandoned," the DCI said.

A manhunt for more gang members is ongoing as DCI warns transporters and drivers to remain vigilant and to immediately report any suspicious individuals posing as law enforcement officers along major highways.

Their mode of operation, the DCI said, confirms the syndicate's wider network that points to organised crime.

Highway robberies in Kenya began rising in the late 1970s and 1980s, especially along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and the Northern Corridor routes (Nakuru–Eldoret–Kitale) in the form of night ambushes targeting public service vehicles, long-distance trucks, and tourists.

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Then, like now, robbers were often armed with crude weapons or homemade guns. At the time, the incidents were blamed on, among others, poor lighting along the highways, limited patrols, and unemployment.

Highway patrol units set up at the time did not end the problem, forcing the DCI, then known as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), to establish a specialised Anti-Motor Vehicle Theft Unit popularly known as the Flying Squad in 1992.

The unit achieved remarkable success during its tenure, but claims of impunity and high-handedness later rocked it, and in the years leading to its disbandment, it was accused of being less effective.

On December 31, 2019, the then DCI boss George Kinoti disbanded the unit and, in its place, formed a specialised quick-response unit tasked with motor vehicle theft, armed robberies, abductions, and the sale and distribution of contrabands.

While cases of armed robberies and sale of contrabands continued, cases of motor vehicle theft had reduced, as well as highway robberies, both of which now seem to have made a comeback in recent months.

Before venturing on the Thika-Embu/Nyeri highways, DCI detectives had earlier this year apprehended three individuals believed to be the masterminds of highway robberies along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

Motorists had raised alarm over people loitering along certain stretches of the highway, flagging down vehicles or feigning distress so close to the road that drivers, fearing they might run them over, instinctively slowed down or stopped.

In one incident on April 9 this year, an Isuzu FRR truck with registration number KDC 020G was transporting gypsum from Nairobi to Mombasa. As the vehicle approached the Ikanga area, one of the three suspects dashed out from a nearby thicket, attempting to cross the road. In a split-second decision to avoid a collision, the driver swerved, causing the truck to veer off the road and its engine to stall.

"Seizing this opportunity, a group of about five emerged from the bushes, forcefully entering the vehicle with one brandishing a pistol. The driver and his co-driver were handcuffed and bundled behind the seats. One of the robbers took the wheel, steering the lorry towards Mombasa. The two victims were unceremoniously dropped off about 300 meters away as the criminals vanished with the truck," the DCI said at the time.

Following the incident, detectives launched an investigation that led to the arrest of two suspects, David Karanja and Juma Jumamosi, who were trailed to their hideout in Taveta.

Detectives said that Jumamosi led officers to his rented house in the Bahati area of Taveta sub-county, where a number plate KDC 020G belonging to the stolen lorry was recovered, alongside a T-shaped screwdriver and two spanners.

As the search continued, a third key suspect, Josephine Nthamba Mutie, was apprehended in Makindu on June 2. The case is active in court.

In yet another incident, Detectives in Kibwezi have recovered 418 bags of rice that had been stolen on June 5, when the transporting lorry was intercepted and commandeered by a five-man gang at Thange area.

According to detectives, the driver of the Isuzu truck had slowed down at a bumpy section behind another slow-moving trailer when a gang suddenly emerged and managed to gain entry into the driver's cabin.

After inspecting to see what he was ferrying, the men assaulted him before tying him up with ropes and throwing him out as they drove off the highway.

The driver was assisted by a local boda boda rider to get to the nearest police station, where he reported the incident, indicating that a total of 522 bags, each containing 25kg of rice, were stolen during the ordeal.

Detectives recovered the abandoned lorry Manyanga shopping centre without 106 bags of rice. Later on, investigations led to the Joseph Macharia Mwangi, 40, Peter Muchemi Maina, 36, and Agnes Malemba Mshenga, 32, following days of surveillance operation along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway.

"The trio was intercepted at Vacani Resort while travelling in a white Subaru Legacy with the license plate KCJ 842Z. Upon conducting a thorough search of the vehicle, officers uncovered three sets of reflective number plates: KCR 879U, KCA 583L, and KAZ 946L.

Additionally, the officers recovered a range of suspicious items, including jungle uniforms, a kitchen knife, two Maasai swords, and a mechanics kit loaded with spanners, a jack, pressure pumps, puncture repair tools, brake pads, and various house-breaking implements," the DCI said at the time.

On December 29 last year, police recovered 129 bags of rice earlier stolen while in transit from Mombasa, when a truck driver was accosted by highway robbers at the Machinery area of Kambu on December 21.

The incident occurred when the driver was overpowered by a gang that emerged riding on motorcycles, who, after assaulting him, commandeered the loaded truck before dumping him around Makindu.

"The gang of four offloaded the 500 bags, each weighing 25kg of rice, from the truck, thereafter abandoning the empty lorry and sharing the loot amongst themselves," detectives said

Detectives from Makindu conducted a raid at the homestead of one of the suspects, identified as Alex Mweti Kasina, 42, who, on getting wind that police were around his hood, disappeared together with his wife. However, outside his house, 129 bags of the stolen goods were found.