Ritual killings worry taxi drivers

Four Nairobi taxi drivers have been killed and their mutilated bodies dumped on the roadside in the past few days. And on Tuesday city taxi drivers staged a protest against the macabre killings, saying that 13 of their colleagues have been murdered in similar style in the past fortnight.

The most recent killings involved three drivers. The body of one of them was found in Kibera on Sunday night.

According to the taxi operators, their colleagues were each approached by two customers at different intervals in the wee hours of Monday morning. They disappeared until their mutilated bodies were found dumped in different parts of the city.

Missing parts

The taxi drivers said the bodies had missing parts and organs such as the brain, tongues and skulls. All the vehicles have, however, been recovered with nothing having been stolen.

The drivers identified four of their colleagues who had fallen victim to the gruesome murders in the past few days. They said the number of those murdered was more than a dozen in the past fortnight.

Mr Peter Karanja, aged 28 and a father of one, picked up two passengers in Woodley area on the morning on August 31. His body was later found dumped at Adams Arcade near the Winners Chapel. He was scheduled to operate the taxi overnight, and then in the morning hand over to his father and business partner, Mr Alexander Kamau. Mr Karanja never turned up to hand over.

His father takes up the story: “I was called that morning and told that my car was at Kilimani Police Station. They said the car had been abandoned on the road unattended for over an hour,” Mr Kamau told the Nation.

He added that his son had only worked as a taxi driver for nine months and was operating from the 680 Hotel taxi bay. They live in Ruiru from where they commute to Nairobi to change shifts.

When the Nation visited Gatundu, Mr Karanja’s widow, Ms Nelly Wambui, recalled that her husband was in a foul mood on the day he went missing.

“He was not himself and not as a jovial as he usually is. I thought it was because he was very sleepy. Since he did not have a phone, it was very hard for me to trace him,” she said.

The couple have a young son Kelvin Kamau, just four months shy of his second birthday. She had been married for only three years, “This is unbelievable, he was getting used to his job and was very optimistic about the future.”

Another victim, Mr George Mburu Kiarie, in his late 40s, is said to have picked up two passengers on Standard Street next to the Stanley Hotel on August 31 at 3am. He too never returned from the assignment, and his body was found near Kibera. According to his colleagues, Mr Kiarie had worked from the Stanley Hotel taxi bay for the past five years.

Also murdered was Mr Charles Mugo, who was approached by two men near the 680 Hotel around 5am on Monday.

His colleagues said the two passengers said they wanted to go to Strathmore School. That was the area where Mr Mugo’s was found near the Administration Police camp.

They taxi drivers operating from the area are baffled and worried about the killings, especially because they are not aware of any dispute or their colleagues having received threats.

On Tuesday, Mr Mugo’s elderly mother in Mukurwe-ini, Nyeri, was trying to come to terms with the loss of her son. Ms Teresa Wachuka got the sad news on Monday night from a neighbour.

“I was informed of the sad news about my lastborn son around 7.30pm,” said the mother of five.

She had telephoned her 25-year-old son two weeks earlier informing him that she was preparing to travel to Nairobi for her regular medical checkup.

“I asked him whether he wanted some green maize. He told me he usually does not cook in the house but asked me to take to him dry maize instead so he can mill some flour,” recalls the mother.

The last time her son visited his rural home at Muhito Village was last December. At the homestead, women from the neighbourhood had gathered to console the family.

The mother is however not clear about what her son did for a living. After hesitating she says he worked at a bus stage in Nairobi. “He works in the stage but I do not know what kind of work he does there,” she says before an aunt intervened to clarify that he drove a taxi.

Earlier case

An earlier case included that of Mr James Tanu Githuku, 60, who was buried last Saturday. He was working on the night of August 23 and his body was found the following morning at Kibera.

Mr Githuku was affiliated to the Kenyatta Golf Course Taxi Association. He left behind two wives Josline Wangui and Eunice Wambui and 10 children. He was also survived by a number of grandchildren and great grandchildren.

During Tuesday’s demonstration, the drivers’ national chairman Mr Peter Mburu appealed to the government to investigate the killings. “Our drivers are now afraid of working at night,” Mr Mburu said.

Reports by Oliver Mathenge, Casper Waithaka, Dominic Wabala and John Njagi