Boda boda riders from different saccos in Kileleshwa on Friday held a meeting with senior police officers and religious leaders from the area over increased cases of snatching.
The meeting discussed ways of dealing with increased cases of crime associated with boda boda riders
Addressing the meeting, the chairman of Kileleshwa Boda Boda Riders Newton Kigode said they have been able to pinpoint intruders in their area.
“We have created a solid database of our riders with specific reflectors providing their details,” he said.
Area OCS Jeremiah Mwenda said he has had 10 successful meetings with riders in the last five months due to an increase in snatching cases.
The OCS acknowledged that with the help of the boda boda riders, the police have managed to arrest 80 suspected criminals some coming from as far as Kiambu and Embakasi.
Calvince Okumu the chairperson for Digital Boda Riders and Deliveries said the database has helped them easily identify intruders in the area.
“We normally alert the OCS within minutes to track them,” he said.
Okumu challenged his counterparts in other areas to adopt the database system and also form saccos to easily identify criminals masquerading as boda boda riders.
Criminals have been masquerading as boda boda operators and snatching phones and handbags from pedestrians in Nairobi.
In the newly-adopted way of stealing, criminals conspire with boda boda operators who amid the thrilling speed, the well-prepared robbers snatch bags from innocent pedestrians, mostly ladies.
It happens within a blink of an eye leaving victims confused as the robbers vanish into thin air.
It is well planned, choreographed and executed that before a victim realises she has been robbed, the perpetrators will have already disappeared.
Last year in June, Deputy Inspector General of the Police Service Douglas Kanja said the criminal elements are on their radar.
"As law enforcement agencies, we have profiled these individuals, and we shall bring all of them to book," Kanja said.
He spoke when he held a meeting with the national chairman of Bodaboda Safety Association of Kenya, Kelvin Mubadi and boda boda leaders from various subcounties in Nairobi.
The meeting was called to deliberate and improve police-boda boda operators’ partnership on the running and regulation of the sector.
The deputy IG said incidents where some characters masquerading as boda boda operators commit various crimes have been witnessed in the recent past.