A gang has been terrorising long-distance truck drivers on the Nairobi-Nakuru-Eldoret highway, robbing them of goods and cash and in one case engaging in gang rape.
A police squad had been deployed to nab them and make the highway safe.
Four suspects were arrested Saturday and a stolen lorry recovered as the team intensified operations, police said.
The four are connected to two violent robberies reported in Naivasha and Gilgil. They were arrested Saturday in Njoro, Nakuru county.
A stolen vehicle was recovered, police said.
Police said the suspects robbed the driver and sodomised him.
On Valentine's Day, a joint team of Nairobi and Nakuru detectives intercepted two suspects believed to be accomplices in the case. They were driving a truck.
Detectives who interrogated them established the two suspects were on their way to meet two suspected accomplices in Njoro town in Nakuru county.
The police arrested the other two when they stopped at the vehicle looking for their accomplices.
With the four arrested, it was established that the truck had been stolen in Gilgil, Elementaita area. The driver had been hired to provide transport services. He was abducted, sodomised and tied up at a construction site in Punda Milia section.
The arrest followed a trail police had been following.
Police said the 38-year-old driver was also robbed of Sh55,000 and his mobile phone by a six-member gang, who disabled the lorry's tracker.
The driver was rescued and taken to Gilgil Subcounty Hospital.
The recovered vehicle was been impounded at Njoro police station where the suspects were booked.
Police are looking for more suspects.
The suspects will face charges including theft, sodomy and endangering drivers, police said.
Such attacks are common on the Nairobi-Nakuru-Eldoret highway, with thugs targeting drivers and robbing them of lorries and goods.
Police said past incidents have been solved by arresting the organisers behind them.
Some suspects steal valuables and abandon lorries on the roadside.
Some use spikes to stall the targeted lorries before striking. Then they drug drivers and abandon them in thickets before escaping with their lorries.
Rift Valley regional police commander Tom Odera said the team on the ground is pursuing leads on the gang’s operations.
"We will camp here to get the gangs terrorising motorists," he said.
