Naivasha residents lynch theft, rape suspects

Two suspects thought to mastermind a spate of robberies, rape, defilement and sodomy have been lynched.

Residents of Kayole estate, located off the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, yesterday cornered the duo in their hideout after a year's search before setting them ablaze.

The residents celebrated the lynching, saying they would no longer have sleepless nights for fear of being attacked.

The main suspect, nicknamed ‘Machete’ because of the weapon he used to terrorise his victims, had been on the run after allegedly defiling a five-year-old girl and her mother last week.

Former Lakeview MCA Simon Wanyoike said the suspects were responsible for spiraling insecurity, adding that residents had been living in morbid fear of the men who went about their nefarious business in broad daylight.

"They begun robbing houses then started raping women and defiling school-going children before members of the public caught up with them," Wanyoike said.

According to another witness, Steve Mwangi, the two suspects had also been terrorising residents in the evening as they returned home from work.

Mwangi said that after the two were cornered in their house, word went round that they would be lynched in a public place where they committed their crimes.

One of the victims, Salome Wanjiku, said the men's death would serve as closure for her trauma.

"They take advantage of women going to the shops in the evening and rape them before fleeing to their hideouts. We can breathe a sigh of relief now that they have been killed," she said.

Naivasha OCPD Samuel Waweru said the charred bodies were taken to Naivasha Sub-county Hospital mortuary.

“We are calling on members of the public to desist from lynching suspects and instead hand them to us so that they can reveal who their accomplices are,” he said.