Suspects captured on CCTV terrorizing Mombasa residents arrested

By Joshua Cheloti Police officers in Mombasa County have arrested 5 people suspected to be among a group of thugs that have been terrorizing locals. The arrests were made on Thursday night, following an operation mounted by police officers from the Central Police Station in Mombasa and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation’s (DCIs) Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU). Police swung in action following the emergence of a videotape of young men assaulting members of the public in Mombasa’s old town. The young men operating in a group of about 15 thugs were captured on CCTV in separate incidents, terrorizing two men who were going about their businesses on April 19, 2020. “Following the incident, a contingent of officers drawn from Mombasa’s Central Police Station, backed up by DCI’s Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) detectives mounted an operation to bring the suspects to book,” DCI said. The five, believed to be among the thugs captured on the footage, were arrested separately in the Kibokoni, Kikowani, and Makadara areas of Mombasa town. Police have identified the suspects as Noordin Mohamed alias MBAVU nene, Brian Ogutu, Vidich Nzilu, Ahmed Ali, and Abdala Mohamed alias MBULO. DCI notes that they have since established that the five belong to a recently formed notorious squad known as the ‘Haipingwi’ gang. The squad, police say, is responsible for the sudden upsurge of crime in Mombasa’s Old town. “In this regard, battle-hardened undercover detectives drawn from DCI’s elite teams have now tilted fire towards the town, on a mission to completely wipe out the ‘Haipingwi’ gang once and for all,” DCI said. Police have now warned that the remaining thugs who are still at large should either surrender or suffer a similar fate as what befell Mathare’s infamous Katombi gang. The dreaded Katombi gang was wiped out early this year after police gunned down Jakande Kabede alias Kababa, whom they said had succeeded the previous leader Fadhili Mgaza whom they killed in January 2022.