Incidences of violent carjackings are no longer news in Nairobi. They are just too common and many times these incidences end up in killings or rape.
That is why is why an incident reported by the police that happened on Monday this week (August 14th 2006) makes for such interesting reading.
Narobians living near Cemetery Road (off Ngong Road) reported hearing gun shots to the police. Interestingly this is the road leading to the war memorial cemetery and is surrounded by a thick forest. It is popular with gangsters wanting to dump bodies of motorists they have killed (or live ones) and has also been the scene of many shootouts between gangsters and the police.
When the police got to the scene, they did not find the usual. Instead they found two dead carjackers and a motorist with a smoking gun. Police obviously did not want to give more details for security reasons but this was clearly a case where carjackers had commandered a vehicle without searching their victim who waited for the opportune moment to draw his gun and open fire.
Experts will know that he must have caught the carjackers completely by surprise because gangsters usually carry automatic weapons which are no match for the pistols that are usually licensed. Police confirmed that the motorist had been licensed to carry the gun he had. Police also said that three accomplices of the dead man escaped, one with bullet wounds.
The other thing that would seem apparent is that this motorist must have had some military training of sorts.
One of the things that has become crystal clear in Kenya is that the government has run out of ideas of dealing with the carjacking menace. Barely a month ago a full cabinet minister, Mukhisa Kituyi was carjacked together with his armed bodyguard, robbed and then dumped on the road somewhere.
The assumption of the Kibaki administration was that simply increasing police presence would reduce crime. This has not happened despite massive recruitment. Even worse is the fact that government prosecutors are unable to prove their cases in courts even after making arrests.
A new younger administration would be in a better position to fight crime in Kenya on two fronts. Firstly by having a priority of job creation and secondly by going high tech with evidence gathering and analysis by introducing the latest DNA equipment used to fight crime in Western countries. As it is, this government is still trying to do things the way they were done ion the sixties. That is why Kenyans will be making a very big mistake re-electing anybody who is currently in the August house.
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I say kudos to the motorists. Let them smoke those carjackers.
ReplyDeleteIf those thugs are willing to kill innocent people who are trying to make a decent living, then it's only fair that the favor be returned to them.
It may not be a solution but hey, you can only be pushed so far before you push back.
How does one get a firearms license in Kenya?
ReplyDeleteCemetry road was also the place Norman Nyagah had that 'incident' sometime back. That place is teeming with thugs and our Brigadier Ali is back-tracking. They messed up the forensic lab, imagine it is 2006 and we don't have a central digital finger-print matching database!! Others are going to biometrics and DNA and we are still relying on rural chiefs to confirm a thug's identity. You know there is this radar device used by army people that can detect humans as far as 500 metres away. Usually found in those johnny landis. Surely can't our cops think and use such technology to comb that cemetry forest. A simple ambush at random is not too much to ask. But hey, you are right Chris, these sixties leaders are over the hill, time they went home. Try and explain to Michuki what a vehicular mounted radar is!!!
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