Nakuru County commissioner Mohammed Birik has urged traders in Molo Sub-county to avoid buying goods stolen from trucks on the Nakuru- Eldoret highway.
He says this will bring down the popular theft business commonly known as “kata hema”.
Addressing a stakeholders meeting attended by Nakuru county police commanders’ John Koki (regular police), Francis Kirathe Administration Police (AP) and Molo district security committee, the commissioner sent a serious warning to traders involved in the criminal business saying their days are numbered.
He said the road and safety authority have erected bumps on the notorious black spot on the highway to reduce road carnage but not to give highway gunmen an easy task to rob drivers transporting goods at night.
Birik said his office has received numerous complaints that gangsters were patrolling the highway with intention of robbing transporters off their good and cash at Sachang’wan, Kibunja and Salgaa where roads bumps have been erected to slow down speeding drivers.
He ordered police from both Molo and Rongai sub-counties to make regular patrols and fell those involved in the robbery.
Those present in the meeting applauded the commissioner for making the directive which is aimed at scaring those involved in the ‘kata hema’ trade.
The county commissioner claimed that a section of traders in Molo were buying goods stolen from vehicles on transit adding that those found will be dealt with as the law requires.
He said traders were frustrating government efforts to eradicate highway robberies adding that as long as traders were colluding with highway gangsters and creating a ready market for the stolen goods, they will continue suffering insecurity.
Birik said: “Stop mourning about insecurity. You are the solution to your own problems. You abandon illegal business and report criminals to police for you to be secure’.
The commissioner urged police to investigate those behind a series of killings in Molo and also recover two AK47 rifles and a G3 allegedly in gunmen’s hands.