Criminals or mischief? Police probe vehicle alleged to be used in city robberies

Was it mischief or a couple found driving vehicle said to have been used by criminals were armed robbers?

This is the question that police in Kikuyu are trying to answer after they impounded a vehicle circulated on social media, said to have been used to rob people along the Southern by-pass near Kikuyu town.

The Grey Toyota Noah was trending on social media for the better part of Wednesday.

The public was warned that the vehicle was being used by criminals who were armed and robbing people. The occupants are also said to have altered the vehicle's registration numbers.

The occupants are said to be a woman and two men. It is reported that they dupe their targets by pretending that they had lost direction and in the process rob their victims.

Police in Kikuyu intercepted the vehicle later in the day and arrested the occupants.

DCI on twitter identified the suspects as a man and a woman both aged 25 years.

But upon interrogation, the suspects who claimed to be a couple denied that they are criminals who were robbing people.

The man is a surveyor by training while the woman told Kikuyu police that she is a teacher by training. They claimed that the wrong information had been given to the police.

Asked why they had altered the number plates of the vehicle, the pair said they were trying to evade the ‘owners of the vehicle they were using’.

They claimed to have hired the vehicle from a city trader but delayed to return the car as they were yet to complete their errands in the city.

Yesterday, Kikuyu DCI chief David Tuksho said his unit was tracing victims who may have been robbed. “We are not convinced on their explanation as to why the altered the vehicle number plates. We will trace the complainants,” Tuksho told the Standard on phone.

Hours later, police in Murang'a reported that a 60-year-old farmer had lost an unknown amount of money to criminals who were in a motor vehicle and offered the man a lift from his home to Kenol town.

A police report on the incident states that Bernard Ngige was at the bus stop when the vehicle stopped. The occupants offered him a lift as they were also headed in the same direction.

There were three men and one woman in the vehicle. They turned out to be armed criminals with an AK 47. They beat him up and made away with his mobile phone and ATM cards.

They forced him to reveal his ATM and phone secret codes which they used to withdraw unknown amount of cash from his M-pesa and bank, before abandoning him by the roadside.