End of the road for criminal who gave police a hard time

PHOTO | FILE It took a 24-hour surveillance and a fierce battle for police to finally eliminate slippery criminal Bernard Matheri, alias Rasta.

What you need to know:

  • Every time a trap was set, the police would only realise later that Rasta had escaped, leaving his henchmen to take the fall
  • Whenever Rasta rented a house in Nairobi’s Eastlands area, a member of the Alpha Romeo squad would then be his next-door neighbour

Benard Matheri Thuo alias Rasta, the last of a deadly trio of gangsters, was shot dead by police in Kiambu county.

From 1993, Rasta, Anthony Ngugi Kanagi alias Wacucu, and Gerald Wambugu Munyera alias Wanugu were Kenya’s most dreaded criminals.

Their rich profile of criminal activities varying from carjackings, kidnappings, robbery with violence, torture, and killing was only rivalled by another underworld kingpin, Nicholas Mwea alias Wakinyonga, whose reign had been abruptly ended in 1978 by crime buster Patrick Shaw.

However, the trio’s clocks started ticking when on August 21, 1995, Police Commissioner Shadrack Kiruki declared them Kenya’s most wanted gangsters. He offered a Sh100,000 reward for information leading to their capture.

On January 1, 1996, an elite shoot-to-kill squad from the Criminal Investigations Department (now Directorate of Criminal Investigations) started hunting down Wacucu, Rasta, and Wanugu.

Three days later, the Alfa Romeo squad led by Daniel Seronei received a tip-off that Wacucu and Wanugu were travelling in a car heading to the latter’s rented house in Rongai.

They were intercepted and Wacucu, the ringleader of the gang, was killed in the ensuing shootout. Though wounded, Wanugu escaped because he was protected by his bullet-proof vest.

SIX MONTHS LATER

The police put out an alert in hospitals just in case he sought treatment, but Wanugu came back on the police radar much later.

The police had hunted Wacucu for various crimes since 1993. For instance, he is alleged to have killed two GSU officers on Outering Road in Nairobi that year. In 1995, he killed a CID officer and two women in Ruiru.

He was also said to have been the mastermind of various violent robberies and bank heists.

Success came for the Alpha Romeo squad six months later.

In April 1996, Wanugu had escaped a week-long ambush set by the Alpha Romeo squad in Mombasa.

On June 27, 1996, however, he was not so lucky. The squad successfully ambushed him at his rented house in Kabata-ini shopping centre in Nakuru town. When Wanugu tried to use his girlfriend as a human shield against the squad’s gunfire, they shot the two.

During his time, Wanugu had carjacked, robbed various banks in the country, and killed a white man.

It took one year for the Alpha Romeo and Flying squads to track the last of Kenya’s deadly trio, Rasta. His longer lifespan was due to his honed survival instincts. For instance, Rasta paid greedy police officers for information about what the Alpha Romeo squad was doing to track him down. This was why he was able to escape dragnets cast by police in various parts of the city.

His victims were afraid to lead the Alpha Romeo squad to him because he tortured them by removing their nails and other body parts. Rasta’s looks were just as menacing as his mean personality.

Every time a trap was set, the police would only realise later that Rasta had escaped, leaving his henchmen to take the fall. Rasta would then revenge the harm caused to his men.

For instance, after the sqaud killed his men at the GSU roundabout on Thika Road in 1996, Rasta retaliated days later by throwing a grenade inside the unit’s headquarters, injuring some officers.

He was also an expert marksman who once emptied a full magazine of an AK-47 rifle into a Flying Squad officer in a squad tracking. The unlucky officer’s colleagues fled the scene without arresting Rasta.

To catch him, the squad mounted a 24-hour surveillance.

ALPHA ROMEO SQUAD

Whenever Rasta rented a house in Nairobi’s Eastlands area, a member of the Alpha Romeo squad would then be his next-door neighbour. If Rasta got wind of it, he would immediately change houses.

In September, 1997, the the Alpha Romeo and Flying squads, led by Seronei, finally shot and killed Rasta in a fierce gunfire.

Years later, Wacucu, Rasta, and Wanugu inspired other hardcore criminal minds who were similarly hunted down by the Kenya police.

They include Edward Maina Shimoli alias Shaban Mohammed, Godfrey Matheri alias the Naivasha Vampire, Godfrey Mulwa Matheka, and Peter Kimani Mungai.