Police arrest teacher suspected to be notorious car thief

On June 11, the deputy officer commanding Matunda Police Station Joseph Jakoyo reported that his car, a Nissan Wingroad, had been stolen from his parking lot.

A day later, detectives who had been dispatched from Nairobi to investigate the rising cases of car theft in the North and South Rift regions spotted a car with similar specifications on the Kericho-Sotik road.

The car had a different number plate and when the detectives asked the driver to pull over, he sped off.

On being pursued he started shooting at the officers.

Three occupants of the vehicle abandoned it by the roadside and escaped on foot but Aron Kibet Chepkwony, 25 was arrested.

Car theft syndicate

Mr Jakoyo, an Inspector of Police, like many other Kenyans, had fallen victim to a car theft syndicate that operates in Eldoret, Kitale, Kericho, Bomet, Narok and Nakuru.

In April, the DCI appointed a team from the Special Service Unit and the Crime Research and Investigations Bureau to resolve the crimes after hundreds of complaints were recorded in the towns.

Yesterday, the DCI announced that they had arrested the alleged mastermind of the crime — a teacher at St. Columbans Secondary School in Kitale.

They said they found David Ogeisia Migosi, 48, with 17 fake logbooks and a Toyota Probox reported to have been stolen.

“Upon interrogation, officers proceeded to his hideout where two other suspects, Asman Memba Bakari, 38, and Jeremiah Yego Kiptoo, 34, were arrested,” said a statement from DCI boss George Kinoti.Seven vehicles that had been reported stolen from different towns within the Rift were recovered between Thursday and Friday, Mr Kinoti said.

They are Toyota Axio (KCL 790N), a Toyota Hilux (KBB 876A), a white Toyota Probox without number plates, Toyota DX (KBJ 316D), Toyota Premio (KBN 377A), Toyota Hiace (KCL 378K), and Isuzu D-Max pickup (KCR 734T). By press time, police were checking with the Kenya Revenue Authority to see if the number plates match with the cars’ chassis numbers. The police also found fake number plates, chassis number stickers, ignition systems, 17 suspected fake logbooks, cheque books and sale agreements.

The DCI believes that the syndicate works with some employees of the Na-tional Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).

“The job of the NTSA employee is to extract information about vehicle specifications from the NTSA website to facilitate the cloning of number plates. The information is supposed to ensure that the fake number plate to be created matches with the model of a car that bears a genuine number plate.

This is because if a car number plate belongs to a lorry, and in the event that the police conduct a random search while on the road and find out that a number plate that, say, a Probox bears belongs to a lorry, they would definitely know that it is fake,” Mr Kinoti said.

Some of the cars were recovered from people who had already bought them. They include a white Toyota Probox, KCD 473V, another vehicle, KCK 279L, a Toyota NZE, KBV 951V, recovered from Wickcliff Momanyi Osoro, a Mercedes Benz C200, KAD 200J, and a Toyota Townace, KBF 875D.

By yesterday, police were looking for an NTSA officer suspected to be the creator of fake number plates.

The thieves, DCI said, have been targeting vehicles in parking lots, at homes and those parked in malls and streets. They use a gadget called kindler to unlock the car and, once inside, they tamper with the ignition to start it.

By Sunday Nation

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