Mombasa Court detains five suspects captured on CCTV robbing woman at gunpoint

Suspects captured on CCTV camera approaching a lone woman standing outside a mobile money shop [Photo/Mkamburi Mwawasi]

A Mombasa court has detained five youth captured on a CCTV camera robbing a woman at gunpoint at Makande area before speeding off on a motorbike.

Resident Magistrate Christine Ogweno allowed police to detain the suspects for 14 days pending investigations into robbery with violence, assault and murder.

Brigton Johnstone Niaya, Chris Odhiambo, Evans Munyoki, Mohammed Hassan and Nzamba Matonyi are suspected to be behind a series of robberies in mobile money outlets across Mombasa that has left one person dead and several injured.

On Saturday three suspects were, allegedly, captured by the CCTV camera accosting a young woman outside a mobile money shop in Makande and ordered her to surrender her handbag at gunpoint.

On Monday, police requested for 14 days to detain the five suspects at Changamwe police station and subject them to a psychiatrist test at Coast General Hospital before any charges can be preferred against them.

The investigation officer Fatuma Rajab said that the suspects had shot dead one of their victims, injured another and had stolen accessories from their victims.

Rajab said that her investigations seeks to reveal if the suspects were responsible for the shooting dead of Jones Obino at his mobile money shop on Saturday in Jomvu where sh. 200, 000 was stolen.

She said that Naiya and Matonyi are boda-boda operators who are being used by the armed operators to facilitate the robberies.

While in Court, Naiya admitted to have been among the robbers captured on the scene of the crime and tried to absolve his co-suspects.

“I was one of the people on the scene not the other four, they are being framed. I was with others not before the court,” said the accused that left the court shocked.

Three of the suspects robbing woman at gunpoint in broad daylight

Three of the suspects are seen on the CCTV camera approaching a lone woman standing outside a mobile money shop and then proceed to whip out a gun and point at her while another calmly takes away her handbag and the other comes across with a motorcycle and they ride away leaving her in shock.

“The suspect will be remanded at Changamwe Police station for 14 days to allow police wind on investigations,” directed Ogweno.

The suspects maintained that they were innocent and not the ones captured on the CCTV camera and called upon police to do thorough investigations to reveal the real suspects.

“We don’t object to the police request to detain us for 14 days as long as they find the real thieves and stop framing us,” said Odhiambo.

“We urge the court to review the CCTV footage properly and set us free because we were not involved in any of the alleged incidents,” said Munyoki.

Rajab said the suspects are linked to a wave of robbery incidences targeting M-PESA shops across Mombasa town.

“People have been killed, injured and lost property including money following the wave of robberies that the suspects are linked to. So I want more time to conduct an investigation and parade of the four robbery incidents where we have victims are recuperating in the hospital,” said Rajab.

She said that she wants more time to subject the phones recovered from the suspects for a forensic lab to exploit them and retrieve call data that will assist in arresting more suspects still at large.

The case is scheduled for April 11, 2019.