Teenage girl arrested in connection to armed robberies in Langata
A teenager was on Tuesday arrested in connection with a series of robberies in Langata, Nairobi. The 16-year-old student was tracked by detectives to her parents’ house after area residents raised the alarm that there was a group of young men robbing pedestrians within High Rise area.
According to the police, they followed detailed analysis and investigations of the robberies, with detectives employing cyber and forensic analysis techniques to identify the beneficiaries of the crimes.
The teen, an alleged beneficiary of some of the stolen items, was found with a mobile phone which is suspected to have been stolen.
“The teen claimed that he received the same from her boyfriend. She then led the detectives to her boyfriend’s house within Magorofani,” a statement from the police read in part.
Police said that after search of the house, they recovered a teargas canister, two black toy pistols a Kenya Defence Forces identity card, six assorted mobile phones, four back bags, two pairs of spectacles and a name tag for a barman.
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Last year, a teenager was among three people arrested in connection with a series of robberies along the Southern by-pass, in Nairobi. The suspects, Boniface Winjira Unganyi, a mobile shop proprietor, Alex Wambua Mboya, and a 16-year-old secondary school student were found in possession of a stolen phone.
During the arrest, DCI detectives from Langata Police Station conducted a raid at Winjira’s shop in Lindi in Kibra and confiscated 102 mobile phones suspected to have been stolen.
Detectives based at Langata, in collaboration with Crime Research and Intelligence crime busters, have arraigned over five suspects in court in recent weeks.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, records at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) show dozens of youth have been arrested in various towns engaging in crime.
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“It is unfortunate that such individuals are doing so not only in contravention of the law, but also ignoring the impact of their actions on the lives of minors,” said DCI George Kinoti in an earlier interview with Nation.
The increased involvement of youth in violent crime and other forms of juvenile delinquency in most parts of the country is a matter of concern to police. In Nairobi, such incidents have been reported in Kibera, Mathare, Kayole and Kawangware.
“The incidents have increased but what is more threatening is that the average age of criminals is decreasing day by day,” Kinoti said.
According to the 2020 Economic Survey, 6,030 children were found to be in conflict with the law as compared to 5,120 the previous year.
Children in conflict with the law were categorised as: Child delinquency (1,169), Child offender (1,211), child radicalisation (37), child truancy (3,454) and drug and substance abuse (159).
A total of 8,098 children were referred to courts compared to 9,115 the previous year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).