A youthful businessman from Ritibo village in Nyamira has lost more than Sh50,000 in a night raid to an armed gang.
Andrew Momanyi on Wednesday condemned the Tuesday night incident but vowed to move on despite the enormous loss to his business.
He asked the area administrators to reintroduce an 8pm to dawn ‘curfew’ that had been imposed till late year since it is said to have reduced similar incidents in the region.
He said that the armed gang had made an entry to his shop at around midnight and ordered him to lie down before taking an estimated amount of Sh50,000 from the day’s sales and M-Pesa and Equity bank business.
“Security in our region is an issue. This is not the first time they are coming to my shop and despite reporting to authorities, nothing was done when I was attacked June last year. Time has come for the security to be beefed up in the region,” he said.
“If the area chief can restrict people from transacting business from 8 in the evening till dawn, it will be easier for the culprits to be cornered. They ordered me to lie down before getting away with the sum of money,” he said.
He urged the government to deploy security personnel to shopping centres in the area which are said to have been targets of the robbers.
“The police station is quite far from this place and I reported the incident about six hours after it happened. It will be paramount if security forces are deployed in shopping centres,” he said.
Area chief Francis Rasugu, however, maintained that no one was allowed to transact any business past 8pm.
“It is unfortunate that businessmen have to lose their property to robbers. The curfew is still ongoing and we will be arresting those who may be found roaming at night,” Rasugu said.