Three women among five suspects arrested for kidnapping man in Parklands

Three women are among five suspects arrested for allegedly kidnapping a man in Parklands, Nairobi. 

The suspects are accused of demanding Sh100,000 ransom.

Police said some women are now luring unsuspecting men from social networking sites before leading them to a room where the man is held hostage and asked to buy his freedom.

Rehema Njeri, Vigilance Mumbi, Hadija Ong’ai, Joseph Makau Mulatya and Patrick Wekesa Omosa, will be charged with robbery with violence after they were arrested by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations’ (DCI) Parklands precinct in a sting operation.

The women are said to identify their victims, mostly men of Caucasian descent on social media platforms before extensively interacting with them and then setting up a physical meeting at a house in Nairobi’s Ruaraka area.

“But moments before they get down, a rude knock suddenly interrupts the occasion as a man posing as a boyfriend to one of the women suddenly appears, throwing a spanner in the works of an eventful evening,” DCI said.

“What follows are demands for a ransom depending on how deep one’s pockets are.”

Police stormed the house where the victim was being held incommunicado, only to find him stark naked, as the five suspects eagerly waited for a mobile transaction of Sh100,000 to set the man free.

The man had called his relatives claiming that he had been involved in a road accident and needed Sh100,000 for treatment.

The special agents who had followed cyber forensic leads to the house where the victim was being held, connected the crime to an incident that occurred last month, where a man was accosted in Parklands and robbed of Sh450,000.

The man has since identified the suspects positively, as those who milked the cash from his bank account in a similar modus operandi.

They are Joseph Makau Mulatya, Patrick Wekesa Omosa, Rehema Njeri, Vigilance Mumbi, and Hadija Ong’ai.

The suspects will be arraigned and charged on Friday.