A 56-year old woman was arrested after police identified her as the mastermind behind the deaths of taxi drivers in Nakuru and Nairobi counties.
Police said they had tracked the woman to a crime scene where a taxi driver, Isaac Thumbi, had been abducted and found murdered.
According to Naivasha head of criminal investigation Adan Hassan, 66-year old Thumbi was baited by the woman in February 2021 from his home in Karati, Nakuru County.
Together with her accomplices, Maureen Waweru is said to have been luring unsuspecting drivers posing as a client while enticing them with unusually large amounts of money for a trip, then stealing their vehicles.
"The woman and her gang were mostly targetting probox vehicles. They had a ready market for the vehicles," the investigator told the Nation.
The woman had previously been arrested as a suspect in the death of a Nairobi-based driver whose body was found in Naivasha.
"We have been trailing her since the incident occurred, but she was apprehended by our counterparts from Kasarani in Nairobi following the killing of another taxi driver," revealed Hassan.
She had, however, been released on a Ksh1 million bond but police sought to arraign her in a Naivasha court where she would be charged with robbery with violence awaiting investigations.
Another driver found himself lucky after declining her trip, after becoming suspicious over the large amount she had offered.
"The woman called around 2 pm requesting taxi services. She kept changing her location after saying she wanted to have four bags of beans ferried to an undisclosed location. I felt uncomfortable undertaking the job," revealed the Gilgil driver.
The incident is just one of many as in December 2020, a taxi driver was found dead in a passenger's home, in Kabete, Kiambu county. The suspect is said to have tried getting away with the vehicle when it failed to start.
