KENYA: KISUMU JOURNALIST WAS CARJACKED TORTURED AND ROBBED

Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

A Kisumu based investigative freelance journalist last week carjacked robbed, robbed of mobile phones and money before being abandoned in a disused Murom quarry, which is located four kilometers outside the City’s outskirts.

Shem Kosse who is a regular contributor to the popular WEEKLY CITIZEN, while in the company of a friend who is a prominent businessman in the town had a very pleasant evening. They had taken few bottles of beers at the famous hotel’s restraint where they also enjoyed an evening meals of the delicious tilapia fish.

The two left Lakeview hotel at about 11 PM and drove to the Club Signature which is only one street away from the hotel. The Club, they found had no parking space for their car. They moved further to another street down and found a parking space at the nearby petrol station.

After securing the parking space, they parked their vehicle and walked on foot back to the Club Signature a short distance where they stayed until almost close to midnight.

Kosse and his companion left the Night Club at about 1.A.M and walked on foot back to the Petrol station where they had left their vehicle. Upon reaching their car, they found another vehicle parked too close to their. The second vehicle had four occupants who appeared to be chewing “Miraa” and relaxing. And because it was parked too close to their car, the two went to the other vehicle and kindly requested them to move their car backward to create a space for them to move out. The men obliged and reversed a few steps backward their vehicle. But hell broke out when Kosse and his friends tried to open the door of their vehicle. All of a sudden the four occupants of the second vehicle turned out to be criminal thugs. They swiftly whipped out pistils and ordered Kosse and his friend inside their own car at the back seat. The men produced ropes and tied Kosse and his friend on the vehicle”s back eats. Three of the thugs got into their own car leaving one who was heavily armed with two pistils who took the command of the steering wheel and drove of from the scene and through the town with the other car following closely.

At this point one of the thugs hit Kosse on the forehead with the gun bat. He was bleeding profusely from his facial wound, but the thugs did not bother. They were driven to Kanyakwar area near Miwani Junction road on the main Kisumu-Kakamega road. The thugs then branched off and drove into a disused quarry, which is located next to the stalled headquarters of the Lake Basin Development Authority { LBDA}.

The two captives were made to scrawl into the quarry walking on their knees. Inside the quarry the thugs produced more ropes from their heavy jackets and tied their hands from behind as well as their legs and abandoned them for a while, only to return a few minutes later and threatened to shoot them .At this juncture the four thugs stood on the edge of the quarry and pointed their guns down on the captives. The thugs then selected the ignition key of Kosse”s friends sleek car a brand new Rav-4. They threw down into the quarry the rest bunch of keys which hit Kosse’s friend hard on the chest.

The thugs then drove away on both cars, but only after ransacking the captives pockets and fleecing them of their money. Kosse lost Kshs 3900. While his friend lost Kshs 12,000 in hard cash.

It was now approaching 4AM in the morning the two struggled for hours before untying themselves using a sharp stone. From there Kosse and his friend walked by foot in the darkness up to Kondele suburb about 4 kilometers from where they took a boda boda motorbike which took them to Kisumu Central Police Station where they reported the incident. Of late there is a sharp increase of carjacking by heavily armed thugs, and on sharp increase incident the stolen vehicle are hardly retrieved or traced.

Ends

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