Police widen crackdown on gangs amid planned protests
Four suspected robbers lay dead on Eldoret Kiplombe Road on Monday while two escaped with bullet wounds.
Detectives from the DCI’s Operation Action Team, tipped off by a resident, had cornered the six near Greenfield Junction as they robbed motorists. Ordered to stop, the men opened fire instead. One of the two who escaped is reportedly carrying an AK47.
Uasin Gishu County Police Commander Wilberforce Sicharani said the gang is suspected in a string of robberies across Kitale, Kapenguria, Nandi and Marakwet. Officers recovered a loaded pistol, tools used for forced entry, five phones, four ID cards and cash at the scene.
Robberies and street attacks across several counties have pushed police into a broader operation against organized crime, timed to prevent gangs from exploiting Tuesday’s demonstrations to loot shops and rob pedestrians.
The National Police Service has added patrols and roadblocks in known hotspots, and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations says anyone caught looting or vandalizing property during the protests will be arrested and prosecuted.
Garissa’s problem looks different but runs on a similar clock. North Eastern Regional Commissioner John Otieno announced a weeklong operation in late June against juvenile gangs blamed for a rise in phone snatchings carried out with knives across the town’s residential and commercial areas.
More than 140 suspects, most of them minors, were arrested and arraigned. Otieno linked the gangs’ growth to youth unemployment and limited vocational access, and said the operation would continue until the networks are dismantled.
Nakuru and Kisumu have reported comparable gang activity in recent weeks, though neither county has released arrest figures.
