Harrowing tales from carjacking victims
By BRIAN WASUNA & STELLA CHERONOThey are young, between late teens to early thirties. In most cases, they will be armed with pistols. Here are the chilling accounts of their victims.
Karen Macharia
The night of February 15 will forever remain etched in Karen Macharia’s memory, the day she was attacked right outside her residence in Kileleshwa.
As she waited for her gate to be opened after arriving home from a night out with friends, a car suddenly pulled up behind hers and a man she estimates to be in his 30s jumped out wielding a pistol and ordered her to surrender her mobile phone and money.
“I managed to drop my Iphone, which was on silent mode, in the car not knowing they would also steal it, and gave them my second phone with some money.
The one in the car shouted that they could also take the car, which they did and sped off leaving her behind,” said Ms Macharia.
After recording a statement at Kileleshwa Police Station, she remembered that her phone was in the car, so she logged into icloud.com which allows apple clients to track their phones in realtime.
“We traced it to Nyayo Highrise where we found the car parked. I got my car back and that was the important thing,” she added.
Dinah Katema
Dinah, Katema, a Nairobi lawyer was attacked two weeks ago outside her house in South C as she returned from a night out with friends.
As Dinah sat in her car waiting for the gate to be opened, two armed men jumped out of a car that stopped right behind hers.
The gangsters, who she estimates to be below thirty pointed a pistol to her head, ordered her out of the car and frogmarched her and the night guard to her house.
“We went into my house where they cleared it of all electronics, jewelry and other valuables. As they were about to drive away in my car they spotted a Land Rover drive into the compound and they opted to take it instead,” she said.
One of her attackers, a slim, light skinned man was aggressive and kept threatening her with death, while her dark skinned accomplice was polite and kept calming her down.
“They both looked to be under 30 years of age. It was when they were taking the Land Rover that I realised there were four others waiting in the car they had trailed me with,” she added.
Mary Wanjiku
Wanjiku, 49 had boarded a Nissan Matatu from the city centre to Uthiru at around 10 p.m on Monday, March 10 when it was hijacked by six armed gangsters who had been posing as passengers.
According to Wanjiku, the 14 seater matatu was carrying excess passengers and it was difficult to suspect it could be carrying gangsters. ”We were excess in the matatu and it was difficult to notice them.”
Upon reaching Kangemi, a man commanded the driver to keep on driving while pointing a gun at him. His five accomplices ordered everyone to observe silence as the matatu headed to Uthiru.
Dark section
“Some passengers wanted to alight at Kangemi but were told to stay put. No one was supposed to make any noise,” added Wanjiku.
When the matatu reached Uthiru, the gangsters ordered the driver to stop in a dark section of the road and shepherded the passengers to a bush near the road.
“The gun men asked us to give them mobile phones and any other valuables we possessed, and then blindfolded and tied us up ,” she recounted.
One of the passengers, a college girl who had sustained an argument with the gangsters was raped in turns by the gunmen as she cried out for help. “We were in the bush, tied up and no one could rescue her,” said Wanjiku.
After they were through with their business, one of the gunmen approached Wanjiku and whispered to her to untie the rest once they had left.