Concern as crime spikes in Lucky Summer estate
Two weeks ago, Denis Kamau alighted a CBD-bound bus at around 1opm at Safari Park Hotel and was headed to Lucky Summer estate, which is located 6.5 kilometers from the busy superhighway.
As he walked towards Kasarani Sports Centre entrance, he decided to board a motorbike that was coming from the opposite direction.
“The motorbikes tend to be cheaper compared to when you pick them from the main stage,” he said.
The boda boda rider and Kamau agreed on the price and were on their way to Lucky Summer.
Little did he know that the rider had a completely different idea.
“As soon as we reached Ngomongo police post, he rode the motorbike towards a field that is located just in front of the police post,” Mr Kamau told Nairobi News.
According to him, the field is known to be dangerous and most criminals are believed to use the area as a hideout.
As the rider drove deeper into the field, Kamau tried to stop him, but he did not heed.
NOT DIFFERENT
“A few moments later, he stopped near a group of men who stole everything that I had. To make it worse, they even took my jacket and shirt. I went home bare-chested,” recalled Kama.
Since then, Kamau, who works in Thika town prefers going to Alsopps bus terminus to connect to Lucky Summer.
James Mokua’s experience with the gang that is terrorising locals in Lucky Summer is not different.
He says that he had alighted a bus at Baba Dogo at 9pm and decided to walk to Lucky Summer. But before he could arrive there, he was attacked by a gang that approached him from the same field where Kamau was worked on.
Mokua says that they beat him up when he tried to resist and stole his mobile phone plus Sh8,000, which he had just withdrawn from an ATM machine.
“The money was meant for rent and they took it all,” he said.
Nairobi News has established that many locals in Lucky Summer estate have suffered in the hands of the gang that has converted the field into a hiding point.
Nancy Nduta who has lived in Lucky Summer for over five years recalls how two years ago the estate was a hotbed of crime.
She said that each night she could hear gunshots and when morning comes locals would find bodies of thugs who had been shot the previous night.
“Each morning as I headed to work, I could jump over many bodies and it was once or twice but several times,” Ms Nduta said.
DAILY PATROLS
Another local Evans Kiambi said that people feared to get home late because the police officers were conducting daily patrols in the estate.
Kiambi, who works as a medical officer in a hospital located in Upper Hill estate, said that he usually met the officers each evening and at times forced to produce his job card in-order to evade their wrath.
However, these days according to him, the officers have stopped conducting the patrols.
“The patrols saw crime reduce in this area but again since the police stopped doing them, the criminals are back,” he said.
Lucky Summer estate borders Dandora to its west, which locals believe is home to the said criminals. To its North, it borders Baba Dogo and Sunton, Mwiki to its South.
This week, two robbery suspects who were terrorising locals in the estate on broad daylight were killed by detectives.
A senior police officer privy to the matter said that the thugs hail from Dandora estate and cross to Lucky Summer where they cause chaos.
“The two hail from Dandora slums and they seem to be part of the few thugs who are giving Lucky Summer locals sleepless nights,” he said.
Dandora is one of the slums in Nairobi with the highest complaints of extra-judicial killings against the police.