A 10-man gang terrorised a Kitengela hotel for four hours on Wednesday night before carting away property worth Sh600,000.
The gang arrived at Hotel Laetoli five minutes to 11 pm in two vehicles - a van and a truck - as workers closed the day's business, according to manager Peter Muasya.
They tied up the workers and two guests who had been sleeping in a lodging after taking the watchman hostage. They had two revolvers.
“We were preparing to sleep when I certainly heard our watchman asking to be let in. He said a guest wanted to rent a room and I went to check,” said Muasya.
He saw one man carrying a safari bag, and when he opened the door, three people - two brandishing guns and a mallet forced their way in.
They pronounced themselves as policemen. “I told them they were lying, and another one said they were robbers. In the hotel, a barman and a chef were preparing to leave. We were all tied together and thrown into one of the rooms,” Muasya said.
Earlier in the morning of Tuesday, Muasya claimed that Isinya deputy OCS called him to tell him that there are increased robberies that target hotels in the area.
When we attempted to seek comments from the local Sub County police commander Kinyua Mugambi, he could not take our calls even after we text him.
County Police Commander, Beatrice Gachago text us to say she had been away and could not comment of the same.
Lastly, we called the County Commissioner, Joshua Nkanatha but he also failed to pick our call and did not respond to our text message.
Six other robbers arrived. “Minutes later, we heard a truck being reversed towards the main door. They started by dismantling the hotel’s CCTV and all its kits. They removed all the five big screens from the wall,” the manager said.
They also broke into the hotel’s store and took another large TV screen before taking away all the beer and whiskey.
The gangsters attempted to carry away the hotel’s generator but had no space for it. They abandoned it outside the main door.
Muasya said the theft lasted until 3.15am on Wednesday.
Officers from Isinya police station, which is five kilometres away, arrived after 5am. They had been alerted by the management at 3.15am.
There has been a spate of robberies in Kitengela hotels. A few days ago, several people attempted to break into Orkeju Resort along the Kitengela/Isinya road.
The watchmen spotted the suspicious people in a car and a truck and alerted the police. The suspect left after realising they had been noticed.
On July 27, hooded gangsters armed with two guns raided Olerai Hotel at 1am and ordered all the revellers and workers to lie down.
“They took one of the largest wall TVs and three other small ones as their leader quaved whiskey from a 750 ml bottle of Johnny Walker,” said one of the workers.
