More than 30 passengers were Wednesday night robbed by thugs who carjacked a matatu along Mombasa Road, Nairobi.
The Embasava matatu was ferrying passengers from the city centre to Embakasi when four of the passengers turned out to be thugs.
Police say the gang was armed with knives and pistols when they attacked the matatu commandeering it. It was commandeered towards Buruburu and passengers dumped in a dark alley in Baba Dogo area at about midnight.
This was despite heavy rains that caused a huge traffic jam on major roads in the city. A hunt on the attackers is ongoing, Nairobi police boss Joseph Ole Tito said.
Some passengers complained they had been roughed up during the drama.
Police say they are interrogating the matatu crew over the incident.
“The crew is supposed to take measures to ensure they stop such incidents. Let them know that they will be charged with failing to stop a felony,” said Tito.
He said they are still looking for a gang that shot dead a policeman in a matatu along Thika Road on Friday.
Four people are being questioned in connection with the shooting dead of the police officer inside a matatu that had been carjacked along Thika Road.
The four include the crew of the bus that was carjacked when the incident happened on Friday night. The officer identified, as Martin Korir was a DCI officer attached to the Ruaraka police station.
He was robbed of his Jericho pistol that had 10 bullets.
Police say they are looking for more suspects in connection with the murder and robbery.
The officer was riding in a matatu home in Ruaraka Friday night when it was carjacked by thugs. In the process of searching the gang stumbled on his gun. Witnesses said he had been in a position he could not act to defend himself and the other passengers. It was then that one of the carjackers stabbed him before he snatched his gun that he is suspected to have used to shoot him dead.
According to witnesses two men hopped into the bus as it slowed down at Drive Inn bumps before two others came as the bus that was headed for Thika approached the bumps near Garden City Mall along Thika Road.
“They shouted at the passengers to lie down and surrender all their valuables before they started to ransack them,” said a witness.
The bus was commandeered all the way to Ruiru Kimbo where the bus turned towards Babadogo, Outering and later at the National Concrete Bridge where the gunmen jumped out and escaped.
Two other passengers who were attacked in the robbery were taken to hospital.
