Police investigate gang targeting foreigners as man robbed of Sh5.2m

Police are investigating whether there is a criminal gang that is specifically targeting foreigners after a Chinese national was yesterday robbed of Sh5.2 million by people suspected to be workers at a company he works for along Mombasa Road in Nairobi.

Mr Shan Xiu Ming, an accountant for Unicross, a Chinese-owned company, left his workplace while carrying the cash which he intended to deposit at a bank along Mombasa Road but was accosted by gun-toting criminals while on the road.

In his report to the police, Mr Ming said he was being chauffeured in a silver Toyota Hiace by Jared Mangaa Oimeke. However, upon reaching Bellevue, the driver told him that he had been signalled by the police to stop.

The driver then turned into South B but did not go far as two men wielding knives suddenly appeared on the road and demanded that they stop. They then forced the doors open and sprayed the Chinese national with some substance on the face before disappearing with the money.

Driver ran away

Interestingly, the driver also ran away after the robbery, leaving behind his mobile phone and national identity card. By last evening police were still looking for the thieves.

"The matter is being investigated," said Nairobi deputy police boss James Mugera.

Police are trying to figure out whether yesterday's incident is linked to a surge in robberies targeting foreigners in the country, with trends showing that the Chinese are increasingly being targeted.

Kenya is witnessing an influx of Chinese nationals courtesy of the infrastructure projects being undertaken. Although foreigners have in the past been an easy target for criminal gangs due to the assumption that they are rich or are always walking around with money or jewellery, the Chinese being robbed walk with large sums of cash.

Why they prefer to walk with millions of shillings or trade in cash when you can easily do it using safer electronic means is another question all together. Yet statistics show that at least one Chinese national gets robbed of large sums of money every month.

Two weeks ago, a Chinese woman lost Sh3 million and jewellery after thieves broke into her house in Kileleshwa, Nairobi, while she was away. Lim Mei, who is a supplier of merchant goods, told police she left for dinner on January 29 but when she came back she found the money missing.

"The victim said the thieves used a spare key to open the door to her bedroom and safe to access the cash and valuables," said the police about the incident.

In October, a Chinese national was murdered while two others got critically injured after a gang raided a warehouse in Athi River. Athi River Sub-County Commander Anderson Njagi said Jia Yuan sustained deep cuts during the robbery attempt but succumbed to his injuries at the Shallom Hospital.

In June last year, two Chinese contractors lost Sh6 million after they were accosted by armed thugs at the Kariminu dam in Gatundu North, Kiambu County. Police investigations later revealed that some workers at the site had colluded with the gang that carried out the robbery.

A few months before the robbery, another Chinese national, Wang Daoli, lost Sh15 million from his house in Lang’ata as he was hosting his friends. His employees Cyrus Kinyanjui and Alexander Kuria, who escaped to Mombasa after the robbery, were found with Sh2 million in cash which police believed had been stolen from Mr Daoli's house.