Fear has gripped Kairi, Igamba, Ngorongo and Kagambwa villages in Gatundu North constituency over increased attacks by marauding machete-wielding gangs.
The criminals are reported to have been attacking the villagers in their homes, businesses and on their way home from work.
The recent victim is Eunice Wairimu who sells animal feeds at Ngorongo Shopping Centre and who has been left nursing deep cuts on the fingers of her right hand.
Narrating the painful dreadful story of how the criminals attacked her at home, Wairimu revealed that the unknown crooks wanted her dead.
The criminals, she said, attacked her while at home on Saturday night while armed with crude weapons.
She said that her eldest son had just arrived home from work at around 11 pm when two men, who had concealed their faces with masks, waylaid him and started beating him before he got into the house.
“I heard him sobbing and imploring for help saying that he was going to die from the beatings unless someone rushed to help him. I hurriedly woke up and opened the door armed with a stick to save him but one of the thugs jumped on me with kicks and blows,” distraught Wairimu recounted.
She narrated that the criminal wanted to slash her face with a machete but she shielded it with her hand before ending up almost losing her fingers.
She averred that the criminals might have been sent to attack her due to a land tussle she has been embroiled in alongside unidentified close family members.
“The criminals could be attacking us because of the longstanding land tussle pitting us and some other family members. My husband was killed two years ago by his executors because of the same. They might not give us peace until they get all they want,” added devastated Wairimu.
Mary Nyambura, another victim who lost over Ksh30,000 to the appalling gang after they broke into her shop and stole her stock, said she might end up being a beggar.
Nyambura regretted that the Saturday night incident was the second attack by the criminals who have been stealing edible stock some of which they eat in the neighbourhood leaving her counting losses.
“I started this business a few months ago and it’s been my only source of income. For the criminals to steal my stock twice is now leading me to the begging world. I cannot afford to sleep thinking about the small retail shop,” decried Nyambura.
The same criminals are also said to have started invading their farms and harvesting avocados and other farm produce including bananas and arrowroots.
“They are stealing everything including avocados, arrowroots, bananas, sweet potatoes, macadamia and other items. We are now forced to guard our farms even at night as we can hardly harvest what we toiled to plant and take care of,” John Kimotho, another resident said.
Simon Njenga, a vocal resident noted that the situation is worse such that the locals are being ferried to their homes by motorbikes, even less than a kilometre from the centre, especially when dusk sets in.
Njenga called on the area’s provincial administration and police officers to up their game and flush all criminals out of the villages.
“We want police to up their games and beef up security in our villages. Some of the criminals who have been terrorizing us are well-known to the authorities. It is time that we join hands with them to restore sanity in this village for social-economic development,” Njenga said.
Gatundu North sub-county police commander Ellenah Wanjiku in a recent interview said that police are working round the clock to weed out criminal elements from the villages.
She also urged locals to adopt amicable dispute resolution mechanisms to solve their disputes noting that land rows pitting family members have been on the rise.
“We have had so many land rows in our constituency which are partly to blame for some attacks. My advice to locals is to seek alternative dispute-resolution mechanisms. We have our local administrators ready to hear and solve some of the disputes when brought before them. We will however not allow anyone to take the law into their hands,” Wanjiku said.
