POLICE CAR/FILE
Police are investigating two separate incidents in which drivers delivering new cars to Uganda were attacked and robbed along the Mombasa Highway in the Machakos area.
In both cases, the drivers had offered rides to passengers they picked up along the highway for a fee. The cars are yet to be recovered, police said Saturday.
Authorities have since advised drivers against offering lifts to strangers, citing a spike in such robberies. Up to two cases are reported weekly along the busy highway, with most of the stolen vehicles rarely recovered.
In the first incident, a driver reported that three men he had picked up as passengers turned against him and robbed him of a brand-new Subaru Forester. The incident occurred on the morning of May 15 in the Kyumbi area.
The driver had left Mombasa Town, heading to Kampala, Uganda. Along the way, he gave a lift to the three men who said they were travelling to Nairobi.
However, as the vehicle approached the dual carriageway near Kyumbi township, the men allegedly turned violent.
They strangled the driver, tied his hands, and abandoned him in a bush before fleeing with the vehicle. The driver later reported the case to the local police station.
In the second case, the driver told officers at Athi River Police Station that he was also headed to Uganda from Mombasa when he was carjacked.
He had picked up four passengers in Kibwezi and Voi. As the vehicle reached the Lukenya area, one of the passengers requested a stop for a call of nature. The driver complied, but the others turned on him.
Four more men appeared at the scene and overpowered him, he said. They took control of the vehicle and drove toward Nairobi.
One of the passengers who had boarded in Voi managed to jump out of the moving car as it made a U-turn toward Mombasa. It remains unclear whether he was part of the gang.
According to police, the suspects tied the driver with a rope and abandoned him along the road. He was later rescued by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officials on patrol and taken to the police station.
The robbers also took the driver’s mobile phone and other personal belongings.
