By KENFREY KIBERENGE
Margaret Muthoni boarded a Githurai 45-bound bus last week expecting to arrive home safely.
It was 7 p.m. and she was sure of being home in 20 minutes’ time owing to the smooth flow of traffic on Thika road.
At Survey area, a well-built man in a black jacket who had paid his fare like everybody else stood up and barked an order: “Hakuna kubeba na hakuna kushukisha (No more boarding or alighting)”
“At first, I assumed he was one of the touts who just wanted the bus to get to Githurai faster for the next trip back to town,” she recalls.
Reality sunk in when four other men in jackets shot up brandishing pistols. The gangster then asked a man seated next to the driver to do the necessary.
“In a flash, the lights went off and I realised something was wrong,” she recalls. “The men were all in their early twenties.”
The gang leader removed a green polythene bag from his back pocket and ordered the over 40 passengers to drop their phones and money in it, warning of dire consequences against defiance.
“A man, who was caught trying to hide his phone lost a few teeth. Everybody complied,” she says.
“I lost a HTC phone worth Sh60,000, Sh3,000 in cash and jewellery.”
They were abandoned on a dark road in Mwiki estate after the gangsters broke the key in the ignition to delay their movement. Without any phones, it took them nearly three hours before the crew could figure out how to start the engine. Muthoni’s story is not unique. Nairobi has turned into a carjackers paradise with the matatus as the prime target.
Conservative police estimates put the number of carjacked Nairobi matatus each day at three, but others claim that more than 10 public service vehicles are hijacked daily.
SEPARATE INCIDENTS
On Tuesday last week, police shot dead five suspected carjackers in two separate incidents on Ngong Road, Nairobi. Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said the five had carjacked two Citi Hoppa buses.
Police officers intercepted the two buses in Dagoretti and Ngando after they were alerted by the carjacked passengers. Another five carjackers were felled in Eastlands a week before as police grapple with the runaway crime, Nairobi County Police Commander Benson Kibue said.
Although most matatu saccos have introduced security checks at the boarding points, some unscrupulous crews are conniving with carjackers who board the vehicles along the way. However, some gangsters board the matatus pretending to be passengers. But Mr Kibue says the collusion is the biggest headache as their initial strategy was to work with the crews to end the menace.
“We have now resorted to detaining the drivers and conductors pending investigations because it is their role to ensure the safety of the passengers,” says Kibue.
In the past two months, 20 drivers and conductors have been arraigned in court charged with colluding with thieves.
“We have arrested so many but we could only link 20 directly to the carjacking,” he said.
In July, Mr Kimaiyo threatened action against one of the main bus operators in Nairobi over collusion.
“Citi Hoppa will be withdrawn from the roads because they carry at least two criminals in the morning and evening, thus commuters are hijacked and robbed,” he said.
The company immediately refuted the claims claiming that the allegations were engineered by their competitors. In July alone, 25 buses belonging to Double M, City Shuttle, Embassava, MOA, Umoinner and City Hoppa were hijacked. That figure does not include 14-seater carjackings most of which go unreported.
In one case, armed thugs commandeered a Double M bus from Donholm at 5am and stole 17 laptops and several smartphones. Due to their perceived discipline and organisation, Double M buses are favourite with the lower middle class Nairobians using public transport.
Mr Kibue said they had identified Ngong Road and Jogoo Road as carjackers’ favourite stretches. In one daring incident, police records show that on October 17, five men armed with pistols commandeered an Embassava minibus at Caltex, Donholm at 7am. They stole 14 mobile phones, a Walka TV, wedding rings and other personal belongings.
Another incident happened in broad daylight along Jogoo Road as the matatu was heading to the city centre. The robbers disappeared into Shauri Moyo estate. And on June 25, an Embassava vehicle was carjacked along Jogoo Road and diverted to Jericho estate. The same happened to a City Hoppa bus along the same road on July 15 when 10-man gang took control of it and robbed the passengers.
Along Ngong Road, the gangsters operating in fours, usually board public service vehicles near Toi market. Mr Kibue says they have identified Ruaraka as the area where most matatus are normally hijacked along Thika Road.
Mr Martin Mule, a bus conductor along Thika Road says the thugs usually strike mostly at the end of the month when most people have been paid.
“But nowadays they know they can get several expensive phones if they carjack a vehicle any day of the month,” he adds. Last month, Mr Kimaiyo sounded the alarm on rising cases of carjacking in the city and said police had enhanced operations to arrest the situation. But the crime continues unabated.
In that month, eight matatus plying route 23 were carjacked in a span of two weeks, forcing operators to threaten to withdraw their vehicles. In one of the incidents that took place on October 19, eight men armed with three pistols took control of a C-Bett minibus at 7pm at Bahati estate. After robbing passengers, the thugs disappeared into the Gikomba market with seven phones, Sh40,500 and other personal belongings.
A Kilele bus was hijacked on October 4 and diverted to the bypass between Lenana and Kabwagi on Ngong Road. A 14-seater matatu was also hijacked on November 1 at the Kangundo-Outering junction and commandeered to the Dandora damping site where the passengers lost everything. In most of these incidents, the thugs are simply interested in money, electronics, mobile phones and jewelry. They do not injure the passengers.
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