Residents of Kitengela are up in arms over rampant cases of insecurity in the populous town. Criminal gangs operating in the most cavalier manner have recently been terrorizing residents.
Broad daylight attacks, snatching of phones and shopping, criminals opening locked doors using master keys, thugs demanding food before robbing their targets are among crime cases reported.
A recent incident where thugs robbed a dealership shop through a guest room left residents really shocked.
On the fateful Thursday evening, January 12, 2023, two clients booked two rooms at Prince View guest house to spend the night.
Unknown to the hotel management, the two who were categorical about the rooms they wanted, were together and on a mission.
The 42-room three-storey guest house at the heart of the town has shops in front.
The two youthful men who checked in had booked ground-floor rooms next to each other. According to the premise caretaker, one client was a frequent customer who alleged to be working with a Nongovernment Organization (NGO) which does various projects.
The frequent jovial client instead claimed that tough economic times had forced him to opt for cheaper accommodation of Ksh800.
The two managed to drill the guest room wall gaining entrance to a Safaricom dealership shop and got away with phones and iPods worth over Ksh700,000.
“I know of the clients very well. He is frequent here and I can easily identify him. We did not even sense the two were together. This kind of theft scheme is shocking,” said Cornelius Nzioka the guest house caretaker.
According to CCTV pictures recorded at the shop, the suspects, who are at still at large, managed to gain entry into the shop at 5:08 am a hole they drilled overnight.
The two ransack the shop using phone lighting before leaving at 6:21 am through the same wall entry.
To the shock of the shop owner and his four workers who reported at 8 am the following day, all the shelves were empty including display phones. The suspects had already checked out of their rooms leaving behind tools used to drill the wall.
The contacts they had provided could not be reached with the Identity Cards they issued.
The incident was reported at Kitengela police station vide OB22/13/01/2023 08 34 hours.
