Muchemi Wachira
2 May 2008
Nairobi — Four robbers were on Thursday lynched by a mob in Kiambu West District.
Villagers celebrated the killings saying the gang had harassed them for a long time.
A vigilante group arrested one of the suspects at 11pm.
"He had entered a shop after cutting through the iron-sheet roof. But he left his T-shirt inside while fleeing after people had raised the alarm," said resident Nahashon Kariuki.
The group was formed recently to ward off attacks by gangs.
Residents said the gangsters have been robbing them at night.
They usually steal cows, which they sell to butchers in Dagoretti, Nairobi.
Mr Kariuki explained that the group identified the T-shirt as belonging to a Mr Ngigi Karanja, who comes from the neighbouring Gikuni village.
They went to his home and arrested him. "We interrogated him and he disclosed the names of his colleagues with whom he has been terrorising families in Ruku, Kagira, Gikuni and Mbari Ya Hiti villages," said a member of the vigilante.
The four villages neighbour each other and are only separated by ridges.
For a long time, residents of the villages in Kabete Location have been living in fear. "As early as 8pm you cannot walk for fear of being attacked," Mr Danson Kamau, a local businessman said.
Mr Kamau is recovering from wounds he sustained on April 6 when robbers he believes are members of the terror gang broke into his house.
"They slashed me in the head and hit my right hand with rungus and iron bars. Now I cannot use my hand. I was admitted to MP Shah Hospital for two days and I am still nursing my injuries," Mr Kamau told the Nation.
Karanja disclosed that he worked with John Kamuria and a Kasyoka who was found in the same house with him.
There is also Kibe, a farmhand employed by Kamuria's sister-in-law.
According to villagers, Kibe is from Murang'a District. The four were then paraded outside Ruku shopping centre where they were battered to death and their bodies set ablaze.
Kamuria's older brother, Mr Fredrick Njau, said: "My brother has been a jail bird and we have tried to request the police and the area chief to arrest him in vain. He started stealing during his childhood," Mr Njau said.
Area MP Lewis Nguyai and district commissioner Peter Leley visited the scene of the killings. Mr Nguyai accused the Government of laxity, noting that villagers had resorted to the gruesome methods of dealing with criminals out of desperation.
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