Three traders who hijacked a lorry on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway purporting to be police officers before robbing the occupants, denied robbery with violence charges on Friday.
Michael Kimani, Raphael Njoroge and Joseph Mbugua were arraigned in the Milimani law courts.
The suspects were accused of jointly robbing Anthony Waweru of a Sh3 million vehicle loaded with 241 gas cylinders worth Sh832, 000 while armed with a pistol.
They are also charged with robbing two others, Abdullahi Mohamed and Abdinur Charfi, of a mobile phone worth Sh27,000 and Sh350 in cash.
Waweru was Mohamed’s driver while Charfi was the loader.
They were flagged down by five people driving a Saloon car whose occupants had police radios.
The three suspects allegedly ordered the complaints out of the lorry and bundled into their car’s boot.
Two of the carjackers took control of the lorry and told the complainants that they were taking them to a police station. After driving for about four hours, they ordered Mohamed and Charfi to take sleep inducing pills and left them in a thicket in Aberdare area. The two were rescued by good Samaritans.
Principal magistrate Peter Ooko granted the suspects Sh1 millionbond each. Hearing will start on February 26.