Detectives in Mombasa spent the better of Monday piecing together evidence in pursuit of two perpetrators of an incident in which a woman robbed at gunpoint at Kadzandani area in Nyali Constituency.
The robbery, whose CCTV footage has since gone viral on social media, had drawn criticism from Kenyans on the horrors of daylight robberies targeting M-Pesa shops.
Sources told Nation.africa a review of the CCTV footage has given investigators reasons to believe the two-man gang could also have been behind a spate of robberies in the neighbouring Kisauni constituency.
The footage shows the men make their way into the shop where the attendant, Dorcas Mueni, was on duty.
One of the robbers engages Ms Mueni in a chitchat while the other is seen standing behind him and after a short while, he bends down as if perusing his bag.
“One of them came in inquiring about M-pesa withdrawal services. Before I could attend to him another man appeared and pointed a gun to my face threatening to kill me. They ordered me to lie down as they stole cash, mobile phones and other items such as chargers,” Ms Mueni narrated to the Nation in an interview.
She said the criminals stole more than Sh30,000 and mobile phones including that of Ms Mueni.
“There was another person on a motorbike who was waiting for them outside. They sped off heading towards Naivas Bamburi direction,” she said.
Ms Mueni and her employer Elizabeth Nduku reported the matter at Kadzandani Mwatamba Police Station noting they are now living in fear.
“We urge police officers to conduct patrols within the localities, such cases have been on the increase lately,” said Ms Nduku who says she was informed of the robbery by a shaken Mueni at around 2pm.
She sounded scared and could not speak fluently of what had transpired.
The area has in recent months been hit by a spate of robberies and police believe the robberies are linked to the particular gang that has been carrying out attacks.
On Sunday at around 5pm, another Mpesa robbery incident was reported in the Shimanzi area.
A shopkeeper in the money transfer shop which was robbed told Nation two men entered a hotel next his premises and ordered a soft drink.
“After a while, one of the men pretended to be inquiring about the prices of the clothes at a nearby shop. The other went ahead, removed a gun from a red bag and ordered us to lie down,” said the Mpesa attendant who had gone to report the incident at Makupa Police Station.
They stole more than Sh68,000 in cash.
Nyali Deputy police boss Dafalla Ibrahim noted investigations into the Kadzandani robbery incident had started.
“We are trying to establish the area the suspects are from and are following up on the matter keenly to ensure the weapons are seized. We urge the members of the public to work closely with us in providing us details of such people to tame insecurity cases,” said Mr Ibrahim.
Detectives extracted the CCTV footage and recorded statements from witnesses. BY DAILY NATION