KENYA: Police in Nairobi have identified a highway gang that has reportedly stolen about 200 cars in the past few months between Mombasa and Nairobi.
Officers who spoke to The Standard said the gang, which is led by a group of three men and a woman known only as Njeri, operates between Athi-River and Mlolongo where at least two vehicles are reported stolen each day.
A flying squad officer who sought anonymity said: “We have received about 200 cases of stolen vehicles in the past few months and a number of them have now been recovered.
The stolen vehicles are taken to Kayole, Ruai and Kasarani where they are either stored or dismantled into spares,” he said.
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Mlolongo Flying Squad Police Boss S S ole Tanki said the gang appears to mainly target top of the range sports utility vehicles, which include Prados and double cab pick-ups that are said to be in high demand in Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan.
“This is a breakthrough for us because we have been trailing this gang for a long time. We know it is led by a man called Samson Marangi who is masquerading as a car dealer and we hope to pin him down soon,” Tanki said.
The police boss said the car thieves have become technically sophisticated, adding that they work as a team to pull off the heist.
He said some members are based in Mombasa from where they trail the car as it is being driven to Nairobi then communicate its details to others based in Athi River and Mlolongo.
Armed with the registration number and number of passengers on board, the thieves in Athi River then wait for the car and may cause an ‘accident’ just to make the driver stop and come out of the vehicle to assess the damage.
“According to several testimonies from victims, the woman (Njeri) will be the first one to come out and as she walks towards the back where the car was ‘hit’, the rest pounce on the driver,” Tanki said.
He said once the car is nabbed, the thieves will turn to specialists who help them dismantle the vehicle tracking device.
Despite the thieves’ extreme attention to detail, police have been able to crack their network following a successful raid carried out on Monday at Kasarani area.
Flying Squad officers ambushed a house suspected to be a hideout for the thieves in Mirema estate, Zimmerman where they arrested two suspects, who included a Jomo Kenyatta University of Technology (JKUAT) student, and recovered two vehicles.
Officers from Mlolongo and Milimani raided the hideout at around 9.30pm and found a Toyota Hilux, which was reported stolen on Saturday at Mlolongo, and a Subaru Imprezza, which officers also suspect had been stolen. They also confiscated a briefcase containing electrical equipment and a laptop
One of the suspects, Julius Nyakweri, told police he is a University of Nairobi Information Technology graduate who specialises in computer repair and developing software but the officers identified him as a specialist in dismantling vehicle tracking systems.
“These car thieves do not work alone. Like in this case, he (Nyakweri) was trying to disable the tracking device. His job was to pass over the vehicle to the next person who could be a buyer or another broker,” said the officers.
They said although they have recovered eight vehicles in the area associated with the same gang, the suspects always evade arrest.
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“We suspect they could be in cahoots with some of our members who leak our reports to them,” Tanki said.
Upon interrogation, Nyakweri told the officers that Marangi was his longtime friend who he knew as a businessman.
“He came and asked me to keep the car for him saying there was a buyer who was to collect it on Monday. He is my friend and I am not aware that he has been stealing cars,” he said.
On her part, the JKUAT Community Development student pleaded her innocence saying she had only visited Nyakweri for the weekend.
She could, however, not explain why she had not reported back to school and is currently in police custody.
Guards at the estate said Nyakweri always changed cars and they never suspected he was involved in criminal activities.
“Anabadilisha gari kila wakati. Juzi alikuwa na Toyota kubwa pia. (He changes cars very often and he recently had a big Toyota),” said Daniel Lotisiro, a guard.
The guard said the suspect would mainly stay indoors during the day and would on several occasions host parties attended by a number of young women.
Police have now intensified their search for Marangi who they say is out on bond despite facing 10 cases involving vehicle theft in Nairobi.
The officers say he is a dangerous man who runs a motors spares shop along Kangundo Road where only specific spare parts are found.
“He has been making our work difficult and we wonder how he manages to have the courts release him on bond despite having many pending cases,” the officers said.
They are also investigating the Registrar of Motor Vehicles department, which they suspect to be enabling the syndicate by providing blank logbooks that are used to smuggle the vehicles out of Kenya.
