A notorious vehicle thief, Simon Muia Katuu has been jailed for life after he was found guilty of robbery with violence.

Katuu was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Loitokitok court.

The presiding judge at the Loitokitok Principle Magistrate’s Court Judicaster Thuku said the court was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the accused (Katuu) committed the offences.

He was the mastermind behind numerous highways robberies.

Matuu was the ringleader of a vicious gang that waylaid lorry drivers before pummelling them and driving off with their lorries.

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PHOTO/COURTESY

One such incident occurred on March 29, 202 when Katuu under the guise of a genuine maize trader approached a lorry driver at Taj Mall in Embakasi, Nairobi and offered him a job to ferry ‘his’ sacks of maize from Loitokitok to Nairobi’s Marikiti market.

The driver of the lorry, a Mistubishi Canter set course for Loitokitok with high hopes of good returns in his endeavours.

Upon reaching a place called Illacit in Loitokitok, he was directed to a farm where the supposed maize was to be collected.

No sooner had he stopped the lorry than Katuu and his accomplices who had joined them earlier pounced on him raining heavy kicks and blows while they demanded to be shown where the lorry’s cut-out switch was located.

However, the lorry driver remained adamant about revealing the location of the cut-out switch throughout the ordeal.

On seeing that they were not getting anywhere with the location of the security device, Katuu and his gang of outlaws stole two mobile phones from the driver and the lorry’s ignition keys leaving the driver for dead.

The lorry driver managed to collect himself later on and found Loitokitok Police Station where he filed a report.

Over a year later, on April 5, 2021, Katuu applied the same gimmick he used on the previous lorry driver but this time around, he picked his mark in Kasarani.

However, along the way to Loitokitok, the driver got suspicious of Katuu’s frequent phone calls and became more vigilant.

At around 6:00 pm when the lorry was approaching Loitokitok, Katuu fell asleep giving the driver an opportunity to take photos of the sleeping criminal.

Simon Muia Katuu. PHOTO/COURTESY

Moments later, Katuu woke up and directed him to a secluded area where his gang joined them and they performed their religious act of beating up the drivers and taking off with their lorries.

After beating up the driver, the gang left the driver of the lorry at the scene with pain. He managed to report the attackers to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Loitokitok and together with the neighbouring country, Tanzanian authorities, they managed to recover the lorry a day later.

PHOTO/COURTESY

It was stuck in mud kilometres away from the point of attack.

Katuu’s fortieth day had finally arrived in form of another operation he had intended to execute in his usual modus operandi.

He approached another lorry driver in Taveta town for a maize delivery to Kitui.

Things went along well until they reached Loitokitok where the maize was supposed to be loaded to the lorry when the driver’s instincts prompted him to drive into Entarra Police post.

Before he could even stop the lorry, Katuu quickly opened the door and leapt out of the moving lorry and dashed onto a nearby bush.

PHOTO/COURTESY

A manhunt for the suspect was launched immediately and it lead to his arrest in Emali.

All victims of Katuu’s acts of crime were summoned by DCI detectives from Loitokitok to come to identify the suspect and they all identified Katuu as the assailant who has masqueraded as a maize merchant.

Katuu was arraigned in court on April 23, 2021, and was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday for two counts of robbery with violence and seven counts of attempted robbery.