How police saved Uber driver from armed robbers in Mathare
Victor Adika in the dock at the Makadara Law Courts.
A 20-year-old robbery suspect who fled the scene where one of his accomplices was killed by police in Nairobi's Mathare slums has been arraigned at Makadara Magistrates' Court.
Victor Adika is charged with attempted robbery with violence for allegedly trying to rob Uber driver Kenneth Mbitiru of his Sh700,000 car while armed with a knife.
Adika is accused of committing the offence with others at large and threatening to use violence against Mbitiru during the incident, which took place on October 16 in the Kosovo area of the sprawling slums.
Mbitiru had received a request from a customer who wanted to be picked up in the Kosovo area and taken to Ruiru, and he went to the location.
The driver arrived at the location at around 5.30am, but a person wearing a hood that covered his entire face emerged from the darkness and Mbitiru became suspicious and started to reverse to make a U-turn and disappear.
But before he could escape, the person, armed with a knife and a hammer, approached him before two other men arrived on the scene.
The assailant tried to break into Mbitiru's car with a hammer, but he raised the alarm and two police officers from Mathare Police Station, who were on patrol, responded.
The officers intervened and ordered the three men to surrender, but they ran away when the officers fired at them to stop, and one of the suspects was killed. The other two fled deep into the slums.
The matter was taken over by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Starehe offices.
The slain suspect is said to be a hardcore criminal operating in the area who was on the police radar.
Adika, who was known to the two police officers, was identified as one of the three men who had attempted to rob Mr Mbitiru and was later located and arrested.
Police officers at Mathare Police Station later received information that Adika had been spotted in Kosovo and went to the area where they arrested him and handed him over to their DCI colleagues who completed investigations and charged the suspect.
Adika denied the charges before Principal Magistrate Caroline Mugo of the Makadara Law Courts.
He was remanded in custody until November 13 when the court will receive his pre-bail report, which will be prepared by the Probation and Aftercare Services Department to assist the court in setting bail and surety conditions. The case is scheduled to be heard on April 22, 2024.
