Details of a Notorious Criminal Gang Posing as Garbage Collectors to Rob Residents

As security agencies continue to crack down on notorious criminals, particularly in Nairobi, residents are concerned that a gang of thugs are devising new methods to rob unsuspecting members of the public, often from their homes and Matatus.

For the very first time, the Look Up Digital Investigative desk spoke to a reformed criminal Dennis (Not his real name) and he shared how they were doing the execution of preying on innocent city residents.

Thugs frequently pounce on unsuspecting Kenyans while they are going about their daily activities, such as running to the shop to buy a basic item.

In an ideal situation, for example, you may have forgotten to buy something or discover that your basic commodity like cooking oil has run out just as you are about to cook. 

Someone threatens you with a knife or a fake gun and asks you to surrender your phone or other valuables somewhere on your way to the shop, leaving you wondering if someone was lying in wait for you to leave the house.

Dennis however reveals that this is not always the case with the notorious gang posing as garbage collectors.

A caretaker, a security guard (in some estates), and a garbage collector are the people who are most familiar with a residence. Robbers prefer the latter role, while other suspects collaborate with caretakers to break into homes.

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“Most of the time in high-end estates, we identified our target then collude with the caretaker or the watchman, pause as garbage collectors then pounce on their targets,” Dennis Revealed.

The majority of Nairobi estates have designated garbage collection days, which run from Monday to Sunday. For instance, collectors could be in Kileleshwa today, Kilimani tomorrow, and Ruaraka the following day. A racket of criminals posing as garbage collectors takes note of this and ensures that they are in your estate on a particular day. Sometimes they collude with the legit garbage collectors.

Look up digital examined some past reports from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) showing how thugs were arrested or shot dead by police officers while defying orders to surrender and discovered that many of the recent cases are being reported in residential areas rather than major cities.

Simply put, in a section of Nairobi estates, especially those notorious for harbouring dangerous criminals, the likelihood of being robbed from your own house is higher during the day than at night.

Residents of Roysambu in Nairobi, which is mostly inhabited by middle-class earners and students from nearby universities who are often away during the day, expressed concern in 2017 about the rate at which their homes are broken into.

One of the residents claimed he was at school when he received a phone call from his caretaker requesting that he return home immediately. He arrived home to find a broken padlock and a vandalized house, and he had lost a tablet, mobile phone, and laptop.

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A resident of one of Nairobi's urban informal settlements told Look Up Digital that robbers worked with garbage collectors to break into his home and steal his new television.

The suspect, who pretended to be one of them, was almost out with the loot when the victim alerted other residents, who apprehended him and frogmarched him to the police station.

Other residents have noted that the collectors, particularly those who try to establish good relationships with residents, serve as informants to thugs who wait for their targets and rely on perfect timing to strike.

Apart from residential areas, Dennis revealed that garbage collectors pause in town and mug residents to steal phones. They also pickpocket and snatch phones in moving Matatus.