Detectives arrest key suspects in Kamukunji woman’s kidnapping

 

Detectives have arrested a man and his lover who are suspected to be the masterminds behind the kidnapping and torture of Kamukunji-based businesswoman Hafsa Mohamed Luqman.

According to the Directorate of Criminal investigations (DCI), undercover teams from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau, with the help of their counterparts from the Special Service Unit, seized Jackson Njogu, 24 and Hafsa Abdi, 21, as they slept at Crystal View Lodge in Kinangop, Nyandarua County on Sunday morning.

Following her kidnapping, Ms Luqman was held by her abductors in a house in Kayole, a stone’s throw away from a police station, for nearly a week.

Operating a bar

On Sunday, the DCI said that the two suspects managed to siphon Sh650,000 from the victim’s bank accounts while she was in captivity. The two suspects then escaped to Kinangop and started operating a bar, according to detectives.

Ms Luqman, who was kidnapped on June 15, was later found by detectives while being held in a dingy room in Matopeni, Kayole.

The DCI said that the two kidnappers had demanded a Sh5 million ransom in order to free the woman but when the money was not delivered, they fled “from our detectives who were closing in on them”.

“This morning was not their lucky day though. They were smoked out of room number 8 at Crystal View Lodge where they had imagined that our hawk-eyed detectives would never find them,” tweeted the DCI on Sunday Morning.

According to detectives, she was forced to stay inside an empty water tank during her time in captivity.

Family sources told the Nation that on the day of the abduction, one of the suspects, Ms Abdi, had left Kamukunji in the evening in the company of Ms Luqman, heading to Kayole to inspect a new business joint they were planning to invest in.

Attacked from behind

However, Ms Luqman was attacked from behind while observing her evening prayers (Maghrib). She was blindfolded and her mouth stuffed to prevent her from screaming for help.

Speaking at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital after her rescue, Ms Luqman narrated how she slipped a note through a space on a metallic window.

“I feared for my life and had to come up with an idea (to save myself). There were children playing outside the room I was held captive in. I wrote a note on my whereabouts and begged the children who then took it to police officers. That’s how I was found,” said Ms Luqman.

Her father, Mohamed Luqman, accused her friend, Ms Abdi of masterminding the kidnapping of his daughter, saying it was all about business rivalry.

Hideout

Crystal Hotel, where the suspects were hiding, is located strategically point at the Magumu junction, with roads connecting to Thika, Njambini, Nairobi and Nakuru. It is also a short distance to the road leading to Narok town.

“It's a small but very busy market with lots of visitors, especially those trading at the busy Soko Mpya market located a short distance from the hotel. One would easily have mistaken the two for traders, but I think the hotel's management got suspicious of them,” said a trader, Mr Reuben Waweru.

The detectives arrived silently, completed their mission, and, just as quietly as they came, left the hotel without alerting other tenants at the establishment or the neighbouring community.

“It appears the police were aware of what they wanted and how to get it. I was in the hotel the previous night. I noticed two unfamiliar faces which I dismissed as traders, but those must have been the detectives. They seemed calm, unbothered by anything or anyone, politely asking for their drinks which they barely touched,” said Mr Antony Karanja, another trader who says he is a regular customer at the hotel.

He also says he was not aware of the presence of the two fugitives and could not recognise them from the photos posted on social media by the DCI. 

Magumu chief John Karoki said residents were shocked by the news about the suspects, adding that he was also not aware of the raid and the arrests.

“We are shocked. I have heard of no commotion or drama...the detectives must have done their homework,” he said.     BY DAILY NATION