They are young and restless. Unrepentant and daring. These are Nairobi teenagers whose definition of fun is running away from home for days to party with friends and strangers. And they mobilise using social media.
The lid was blown off when six girls went missing from their homes in Nairobi’s Komarock estate only to surface days later and claim they were bored at home and decided to have some fun.
Hardly had the dust settled on the Komarock case than detectives on Saturday night arrested 44 students and their host and recovered assorted alcoholic drinks and bhang.
The incident happened at Nairobi’s Mountain View estate. According to police, the teenagers – aged between 14 and 17 years – were from Kiambu, Machakos and Nairobi counties and had converged at a house in the middle-class estate.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said the 26 boys and 18 girls are learners in primary and secondary schools.
The host, Millicent Kithinji, said to be in her early 40s, is the main suspect in the case. The detectives have indicated they will request more days to complete investigations.
“We have engaged the sub-county Children’s Officer to advise us on how to deal with the teenagers,” a senior detective said.
They are being held at Kabete Police Station and will be charged with being in possession of narcotic drugs and contravening the Ministry of Health Covid-19 regulations.
According to police, they seized different brands of whisky and vodka and bhang from the house and that the children had been there for hours.
It is not clear whether their parents were aware of the party. Already, officers have contacted some of the parents.
DCI boss George Kinoti said investigations are ongoing to establish how the children left their homes and travelled that far without raising suspicion from their parents.
“Police also want to establish why the woman had hosted the children and how the children got to her house,” he said.
“The DCI once again requests parents to take keen interest in their children’s activities at home and on the social media networks,” said Kinoti.
The arrest comes in the wake of revelations of an existing active group that is luring school girls to sex parties in Nairobi estates. The group uses a social media account named Cartygang-ent to lure the girls for the orgies that run for days.
The six Komarock girls had been shooting videos of their activities in a house in Thika town and sharing them with a clique of friends. Three of them are in police custody as the host is being sought. He is said to be a doctor.
When they showed up at the Central Police Station in Nairobi hours after their relatives had raised alarm about their disappearance, the teens said they were killing boredom away from home and declared there was no need for panic.
They did not seem concerned that their moves had caused anxiety. Police have since seized their mobile phones for analysis as they probe the ring behind the new disturbing trend. And the girls are unrepentant with some wondering why they should show remorse.
“I’m not apologising to anyone. Did I tell you to look for me?” one of the girls tweeted. Investigations were launched after a woman, in a video that went viral, pleaded with the public to help the family trace the missing girls.
The girls, all aged 16, disappeared from home on November 14 after they were allegedly lured to cast auditions.
Cases of children being caught engaging in drinking and sex orgies have been on the increase in the last one year.
Just last month, police stormed a house in Nairobi’s Buru Buru estate and nabbed several teenagers engaging in binge drinking and suspected sex orgies.
And in June, 38 teenagers from Kemboa village in Ogembo, Kisii County, were arrested while binging on illicit liquor and allegedly engaging in a sex party.
There were 34 boys and four females in the orgy. The children were aged between 14 and 20, police said.
Fourteen used condoms were found at the scene, a residential house in Ogembo town. Also recovered were rolls of bhang.
Kisii County Police Commander Jebel Munene said all the 38 were taken into mandatory quarantine at Kisii High School.
Earlier in August last year, 30 minors were arrested in a club in Migori county where they held an overnight sex party that included heavy consumption of alcohol.
The 19 girls and 11 boys were arrested in a dawn swoop at Robi Club in Kehancha town after residents, complained of their binge drinking and sexual acts.
Also arrested was the owner of the premises Amos Murimi and a disc jockey Victor Ocharo.
“The club is notorious for wild parties with underage revellers drinking and engaging in sex, and most often, we wake up to vandalism and used condoms littering the area,” a resident, Alice Mwita, was quoted as saying. Residents said some of the revellers are as young as 12 years.
“We have complained about the disturbance but each time the children have been rowdy and unruly,” a resident Albert Chacha said.
