Residents raise the alarm over gangs

 

A side walk in Migosi Estate in Kisumu where carjackers are believed to prey on their victims at night. Residents of Kisumu are up in arms over criminal gangs that have been terrorising them at night for weeks. PHOTO/FILE.   NATION

In Summary

• The gangsters have been reigning terror in estates such as Migosi, Kenya Re, Nubian Upper Brilliant, Aliwa and Lolwe as soon as night falls.
• Area police chief Musa Kongoli pledged to look into the residents’ grievances.

Residents of Kisumu are up in arms over criminal gangs that have been terrorising them at night for weeks.

The gangsters have been reigning terror in estates such as Migosi, Kenya Re, Nubian Upper Brilliant, Aliwa and Lolwe as soon as night falls.

The residents Thursday told Nation that they were living in fear, and close their businesses early to evade attacks.

They raised the alarm after a taxi driver was slashed on the head by the gangsters at his home in Nubian Upper Brilliant Estate on Wednesday night.

Mr Muita Wange, who plies the Kisumu International Airport to town route, was parking his car when the gang struck.

The driver locked himself in the vehicle as the machete-and-gun wielding gang charged towards him.

“Locking myself in the car was the greatest mistake I did because they broke the windows using machetes and started cutting me,” he told Nation Thursday.

He said the attackers were in their dozens and they took control of the estate for half an hour, vowing to kill anybody who dared rescue him.

“All the neighbours were awake and watching from their windows as my wife screamed from the house,” he said.

The attackers fled after cutting the driver on the head. He was taken to hospital, treated and discharged.

His neighbour Pamela Anyango accused police of failing to respond to their distress calls in time.

“It’s unfortunate that we called the officers immediately the gang struck, but they came an hour later,” she said.

The attack was the second in less than five days. On Friday, Mr David Ogolla was car-jacked and slashed outside his house in Migosi.

Mr Ogolla said the gangsters were people who know how the area well. The residents asked the police to assure them of security.

Area police chief Musa Kongoli pledged to look into the residents’ grievances.