Beware: City robbers now using bodabodas
Police have raised alarm on the emerging trend of robbers using motorcycles to commit crimes in the city.
Police say the robbers ride in pairs to masquerade as a boda boda operator with a customer.
Those who have fallen victim say the passenger is usually the armed one.
The suspects, according to police statistics, use stolen motorcycles.
“They usually prefer them because they don’t have to wait for traffic jams to escape and they can pass through the smallest paths,” Nairobi County police boss Benson Kibue explained to journalists at a previous press briefing.
He said police cars usually have a tough time chasing after criminals in motorcycles who in most cases escape arrest.
“Nairobians should really be careful with motorcycle riders especially at night. You should not stop if a motorcycle speeds ahead of you,” Mr Kibue warned.
MP robbed
On Wednesday, Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri claimed he was attacked while stuck in a traffic jam along Uhuru Highway by robbers who were on a motorcycle.
On August 15, a senior police officer and a businessman were shot and seriously injured in Parklands by gunmen riding on five motorcycles.
On September 14, police from the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU) gunned down two suspected robbers in Ruaraka after they had robbed a businessman.
The robbers were riding on a motorcycle which was later established to have been stolen from a boda boda operator in Kayole.
Police recovered an AK-47 assault rifle from one of the two suspects.
And on August 17, another gang riding on motorcycles robbed five people including foreigners as they walked on Mzima Springs Road in Riverside.