Three suspected thugs were shot dead in a botched robbery of a taxi off Mombasa Highway, Machakos County.
The three were part of a gang that had hired a taxi from Nairobi to Malili Ranch when the incident happened at the weekend.
Police said taxi driver Michael Njagi reported to them he had been hired from the city centre by two people who promised to pay him Sh3,000 up to Malili Ranch. Machakos OCPD Samuel Mukinda said on reaching near the ranch, the car was blocked and hijacked by unknown gunmen, two of them wearing police reflector jackets and armed with walkie talkies.
It was then the driver was pushed to the back seat and ordered to drink an unknown substance. The driver was later abandoned within Konza after he was moved to a different car and his driven away.
Police who were patrolling the area found him in the thicket and he narrated to them what had happened. It was then that an alarm was raised through the police communication network and some officers confronted the car as it sped off.
Three men were shot and killed and a pair of handcuffs, one police communication gadget, police uniforms, two police berets, a key for handcuffs, panga and sisal rope recovered. Police believe the group had been posing as officers and robbing locals in the recent past in the area. [Cyrus Ombati]