By KENAN MIRUKA
Taxi operators in several towns across Nyanza are a worried lot. Rising cases of theft of vehicles and murder of drivers in cold blood is threatening to render them jobless.
Despite numerous police roadblocks along major highways in the region, several cars have been stolen by a suspected organised gang targeting taxis and car hire vehicles.
The vehicles are then smuggled into neighbouring countries.
In the latest incident, a taxi driver was reported missing in Kisii town with his car. After ten days of endless search in various towns across South Nyanza, his mutilated and decomposing body was found in a thicket on a roadside in Migori County.
Elijah Omosa, 32, left Kisii town on January 6, at 9am. He told a friend he was ferrying a client to Ogembo town in his white Toyota station wagon KBJ 760T. A woman cries in anguish as the public watches on receiving news of the discovery of her son-in-lawâs body after he was carjacked by criminals. PHOTOS: KENAN MIRUKA/STANDARD]
Unanswered calls
Omosa later called his brother from Migori town at 8.37pm saying he was on his way back to Kisii, but his phone went off afterwards.
"I grew suspicious when he failed to turn up past midnight and I informed police. We mounted a search together with police throughout the night and into the following day. Search teams went to Sirare border, Muhuru Bay, Kehancha and Migori, but he was nowhere to be seen," narrates his brother Job Omosa, also a taxi driver.
The family got a call later informing them that a body had been found dumped two kilometres from the Migori-Kehancha turnoff. It turned out to be the missing driver.
"The body was stark naked with eyes and private parts removed. Locals told us many bodies had been recovered from the spot surrounded by a thicket. The vehicle is still missing," adds Omosa.
