'We're on our own!' Public outrage after gang robs motorists on Nairobi Expressway

Images circulated widely on social media depict armed goons boldly surrounding and looting vehicles along the multi-billion-shilling toll highway, a major thoroughfare typically associated with high security and rapid transit.

In one captured incident, multiple suspects are seen surrounding slowed traffic, harassing drivers, and making off with personal belongings before jumping into a waiting red car just a meter away. 

The audacity of the attack on one of the country's flagship infrastructure projects - and in full view of daylight - has sent shockwaves through the public, raising acute concerns over the state of national security, with many lamenting that the government has left them to their own devices.

The incident has triggered a sharp backlash online and on the streets, with citizens questioning the government's ability to maintain basic law and order.

On the social media platform X, user Murima Maestro reflected the widespread angst, posting: "Are Kenyans really safe with this Ruto's administration? Goons are stealing from people in broad daylight in the Expressway ata."

The user went on to lament that the nation’s security situation appears to be deteriorating rapidly, reasoning that Ruto had turned Kenya into Haiti's notorious Port-au-Prince city. 

In a subsequent video shared alongside the shocking photos, a red saloon car - whose number plate is KDT 053T - can be seen speeding down the elite highway, evidently ferrying the same criminals recorded robbing motorists just minutes earlier.

Kenyans have now expressed fear over using key urban corridors, noting that criminal networks appear increasingly emboldened and don't even appear to be worried about highly monitored spaces.

"What is even more concerning is that this is a major highway with a visible police presence and multiple toll stations. If criminals can boldly attack motorists in broad daylight on such a heavily monitored road, then questions must be asked about the security of motorists using the Expressway," one Kenyan wrote on X. 

Lawyer Willis Otieno wrote: "This is what you get when high unemployment meets the normalisation of goonism and mediocrity in the management of internal security. And we are already seeing the warning signs. You cannot manufacture insecurity through bad governance and then pretend that more police stations alone will solve it."

Another X user said: "If armed gangs can freely operate on a heavily monitored, CCTV-covered toll highway with toll stations everywhere, no place in this city is safe. I mean, how did a getaway car manage to pick up goons and speed off without security intercepting them at the next exit?"

Hours after the incident, Moja Expressway Company, the private entity that operates the toll road, clarified that the event was merely a brief logistics stop rather than a security breach. 

They revealed that the two vehicles captured in the scene belonged to a delegation of politicians leaving a nearby function. 

Upon reaching that section of the expressway, the convoy briefly pulled over to allow the occupants to swap vehicles before continuing their journey.