More machete-wielding gang members arrested in Mombasa

The ongoing hunt for suspected members of the dreadful machete wielding gangs in restive regions across Mombasa has yielded additional arrests of more thugs.

The crackdown was especially ramped up at Kisauni Sub-County targeting Junda, Bilima, Barisheba, Sunlight, Mwandoni, Cobra and Kadongo Grounds.

Also raided is Mwakirunge and Vikwatani.

A total for of authorities 39 suspects linked to gang violence had since been rounded up and lost and locked, police said.

On Tuesday alone, 51 other suspects were taken in for questioning.

At least five tuk-tuks believed to be used in phone snatching crimes were also impounded during the multi agency operation.

The arrests Thursday come days after 120 other suspects linked to criminal gang violence were arrested in Kwale county.

Suspects arrested Thursday would appear in court Friday, authorities stated.

Elsewhere, detectives on a prowl in Nairobi say they seized several individuals suspected to be engaging in land fraud.

The suspects had been forging land ownership documents and other government-related documents with the intent to defraud innocent members of the public of their parcels of land.

During the multi-agency crackdown eight key suspects were apprehended .

They include Livingstone Ambai Munala (aged 44), Dan Adero Okoth, Nicholas Mukuna Ayela, Paul Muigai Kimani, Kennedy Mulatya, Patrice Josaya Tumbo, Emmanuel Matheka Mutuku, and Leonard Clifford Wafula.

Each member of the syndicate was arrested in a separate operation, police said.

Raids in their premises led to the discovery of multiple assorted land documents belonging to different individuals, including dozens of plain and original title deeds, 287 assorted stamps, blank grant titles and allotment letters, 11 unused green cards, 101 passport size photos for different individuals, certificates of titles, numerous transfer documents among other evidential materials.

Notably, Dan Okoth is an assistant security officer at the Ministry of Lands – Survey of Kenya, Emanuel Matheka a casual labourer at Ardhi House – Nairobi, Josaya Tumbo a land broker while Clifford Wafula works at the Government Press as a printer II.

The suspects have since been arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.

The arrest of the suspects comes at a time when land fraud menace has rocked the Capital given the lucrative real estate business, with landowners having undeveloped plots waking up to skyscraper buildings built on their property by fake document bearers, who are either perpetrators or victims of land fraud.