The proverbial 40 days of a thief for an armed robber in Trans Nzoia county came at the hands of a brave woman and her husband on Sunday night.
The robber, armed with an AK-47 rifle, stormed the home of Everlyne Barasa and her husband Philip Nakhisa in Kaptegaa village at around 9 pm as the family prepared to go to bed.
Barasa, 51, recounted the ordeal, saying the robber pointed the rifle at her forehead and demanded Sh200,000 – the proceeds of her recent land sale. Barasa said the suspect said he was aware that the family had sold land.
“I was heading to the bedroom when the gunman stormed our house. He threatened to kill me, my husband our three children if we didn’t give him the money. I knelt down, begging the hooded man not to harm us,” she said.
As this was going on, her husband Nakhisa, who had dozed off on a couch, was awakened by the commotion. He kept his calm as the thug did not notice him on the sofa behind him.
“While still kneeling, begging him not to kill us, I saw my husband slowly rise up. I knew if I grabbed the thug by the knees and he falls down, my husband would definitely jump in to help me,” Barasa recalled.
The woman seized her chance and tackled the robber to the floor as her husband joined in. They wrestled the gun from the suspect, pinned him to the ground, and called for help.
Neighbours arrived promptly and descended on the suspect with kicks and blows and pelted him with stones. The robber was saved from the mob by a village elder, Eunice Simiyu, who asked them not to kill the suspect and called the police.
The robber later confessed that the AK-47 belonged to a police reservist who allegedly hired him to rob the family. He also claimed that an accomplice, who was also armed, fled during the botched robbery.
