Help nail deadly criminals
The nasty crime of kidnapping for ransom is on the increase. Not long ago, there was the sad news of the eight-year-old schoolgirl who was abducted in Kitengela, Kajiado County, and killed after her mother had received calls from unknown people demanding Sh300,000 ransom.
Police deserve plaudits for quickly investigating and arresting the key suspects in the schoolgirl’s killing. They must, by now, have built up impeccable evidence to nail the murderers.
Several days ago, a Nairobi businesswoman was seized from Kamukunji and held in a dingy house in the city’s Eastlands section with the hostage takers demanding Sh5 million ransom. Fortunately, Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives managed to rescue the young woman and arrest a suspect.
Another recent incident is the abduction of a 79-year-old man as he travelled from his home in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County, to visit a relative in Kisii County. His abductors demanded Sh2 million ransom. The old man was held captive for two weeks by crooks hoping to make quick money from subjecting an innocent person and his family to misery.
These cases show the depth to which greed will drive some people to commit horrendous crimes in their pursuit of quick money. The criminals endanger and sometimes needlessly end up killing innocents. What the masterminds of the heinous acts do not realise is that, in the long run, crime does not pay as the long arm of the law will catch up with them.
The DCI teams in various parts of the country have done a commendable job to bring the suspects to book. Also laudable are the brave family members, who, while cooperating with the kidnappers, had the presence of mind to alert the police about what was going on.
The police cannot be everywhere to tackle the criminals; even if they were, the officers need information to be able to pursue and apprehend the suspects.
