Kidnappings
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 30/Aug/2009 11:29, 34 days ago
Yesterday at my neighbour’s party, a middle aged Kenyan lady had a band-aid on her forehead and someone at our table asked her what happened. She explained that she had been kidnapped only 4 days ago and was hit in the head with a gun.She was walking between 7 and 8 pm in an upscale neighbourhood around Yaya Centre when a car posing to be a taxi passed her, a young man pretending to be a passenger got out, approached her and told her not to make a sound and to get in the car or he’d kill her. There were security guards all around but she couldn’t do anything to get their attention. She was directed into the middle seat of the back seat surrounded by men on each side as well as two men in the front and the driver had a gun. After taking all her gold rings, jewelry, money and valuables, they brought her to an ATM and forced her to withdraw the contents of her account (Ksh 30,000, which is roughly Cdn$500). Since she did what they asked, they didn’t do much harm to her (other than hitting her in the head with the gun) and pushed her out of the car far away from where she was abducted.She is a very lucky or unlucky lady, depending on how you look at it. She is the second Kenyan woman who I know personally who has had this happen to them within the past 6 months.It’s reported that most of the crimes in Nairobi happen between the hours of 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm and are carried out by young men. Some speculate that many of these young men are expected to be home, while others say it’s so they can go and drink away their new money at the bar.