2018 REVIEW: Granny gangster linked to abduction ring shot

Mysterious killings and bizarre crimes became a talking point as the crime rate soared in the Mt Kenya region last year.

In Nyeri County, the killing of Kamakwa Chief Peter Kimiti Nyuguto triggered panic among locals and security officers.

Mr Nyuguto was killed in July at around 6pm by unknown gunmen outside his home.

The father of three had just parked his motorcycle in his compound and proceeded to his coffee farm to check on some labourers, who were tending his trees. He had spent the day in a meeting with security officials in Nyeri Town before going home.

PUPIL KIDNAPPING

He was shot three times in the chest and died on the spot.

Mr Nyuguto's brutal killing triggered what turned out to be a bloody police operation against violent robberies that left at least 20 dead and hundreds arrested.

On September 17, Meru County was in the limelight after the body of a magistrate’s daughter was found dumped in Gitoro Forest in a kidnapping gone horribly wrong.

Maribel Kapolon, who was nine years old and a Class Four pupil at Consolata Primary School, was Githongo Law Courts Resident Magistrate Carol Kemei's daughter.

Maribel was kidnapped on September 6, on her way home from school.

Eleven days later on a Sunday evening, police officers received information that the decomposing body of a girl had been found at Gitoro Forest. The body was later identified as being that of Maribel.

A postmortem at Meru Level Five Hospital mortuary showed that the killers had hit her on the head several times, inflicting injuries that resulted in her death.

GRANNY GANGSTER

Two suspects were arrested and taken to a Meru court but the case was later transferred to Chuka.

This is because Maribel’s mother is a magistrate in a court that falls under Meru Law Courts.

In July, the rescue of an abducted woman by police in Murang’a uncovered a strange yet well-kept secret of a gangster granny who led an abduction ring.

An operation to rescue Ms Margaret Waithira from her captors in their hideout ended in the killing of two suspected robbers.

An 80-year-old woman was also killed alongside the duo in Gatundu Village, Murang’a County, in what could easily be termed as collateral damage. The two were her accomplices.

However, later findings revealed that Ms Wambui Muturi was a devout Catholic by day, but by night, she ran a gang that terrorised the residents of Mt Kenya region and whose tentacles extended to Nairobi.