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How police rescued former MP’s aide from kidnappers in city estate


Police are holding seven people including a woman, who kidnapped former MP Maoka Maore’s personal assistant and demanded a Sh500,000 ransom.

The seven were arrested in Pipeline Estate in three different houses that they used interchangeably as they tortured Mr Lewis Eng’ang’a for 10 hours.

As they held him, they withdrew money from his bank account and M-Pesa, as they also crowd-sourced for funds from relatives and friends by writing them messages asking them to channel money to his mobile phone.

Mr Eng’gang’a had been sent to a garage in Industrial Area on Wednesday, and at around 2pm when he was walking from Land Mawe towards Bunyala, he was accosted by four people near a petrol station.

HAD A GUN

“They had a black van. One of the men who had a gun commanded me into the car and told me to be quiet,” Mr Eng’ang’a said.

He said while they were inside the car, they asked him to give them his mobile phone, his Driving License, sh16,700 and ATM cards.

The car was driven to Avenue Park and then to several other locations, before arriving at Pipeline Estate.

By the time they arrived at Pipeline Estate, they had not told him what exactly they wanted from him.

“The four started arguing and debated about where they needed to take me. They finally settled on ‘Erico’s house’ which was on the fourth floor of a building. Inside the house, there were three other men who were drinking and smoking,” Mr Eng’ang’a said.

Former MP Mr Maore said he learnt about the kidnapping from a friend who had been called by Mr Eng’ang’a and he called the police to try and find him.

DIFFERENT HOUSES

The seven suspects, according to Nairobi County Police Commander, Japhet Koome, were arrested in three different houses in Pipeline.

“We arraigned them at the Makadara Law Courts today (Friday) but we have applied for the court to allow us to detain them for some time as we carry out investigations,” he said.

In total, police recovered 15 mobile phones, several sim cards and sh49,500 from all the suspects.

Mr Koome added that police are looking for the other suspect whom he said is armed. He requested members of the public to help police locate him.