There lived an outlaw in Nakuru whose crime stories read like a legend.The gangster was known as Samuel Gitau Saitoti alias Macho Mbaya.
Saitoti was born and raised in Kajiado but chose Nakuru as his hiding hole. He recruited several members and built a crime empire.
Macho and his boys became so brutal and were said to be the masterminds of the biggest bank robberies and carjacking of four-wheel drive vehicles along the Naivasha-Nairobi highway in 2003-2007.
In his book of crime, he also floored several police officers.
Crime busters who had been trained to track and kill him said he was among the most slippery gunmen Kenya has ever had. He operated hideouts in Kiserian, Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru where he would entertain himself with women and booze.
He was also accused of involvement in the Fort Jesus Forex Bureau heist of October 2003, a daring rescue of his accomplices from the Embu GK Prison in August 2005, the murder of two police officers during a robbery in Mombasa on December 12, 2006, an armed robbery in Njoro on January 4, 2007 and the Habib Bank, Mombasa branch robbery of January 17, 2007, a local daily once said.
And just like Rasta, Wanugu and Wacucu, Saitoti had started his career as a matatu tout before the vagaries of crime lured him.
But as they say, those who live by the gun die by the gun, Saitoti was gunned down in a hail of bullets in Arusha’s posh Liro estate.
He was hunted down by over 100 Tanzanian police officers. When the gunshots stopped, police recovered seven guns, hand grenades, two bullet-proof jackets and over 85 rounds of ammunition.
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