This archive report was first published on 21 December 2019.
On a typical day in November, Brandon, a 23-year-old photographer, found himself outside Mountain Mall on Thika Road, waiting to meet a potential customer who had expressed interest in buying his old camera.
Unbeknownst to him, Brandon had unwittingly fallen victim to a well-executed con, enabled by a possible collusion between security personnel at the mall and the criminals.
After posting his classified on a popular website, Brandon received a response from a man who expressed interest in the camera and requested to meet so that he could test it before purchasing it.
“We met and he looked at the camera, liked it and we even negotiated the price. Then he requested that we go to Mountain Mall so that he could get some money to pay me,” Brandon recalls.
However, what should have been a smooth transaction turned out to be a con, leaving Brandon smarting from the loss of his camera.
It was later discovered that the mall had a back entrance that was being used as a getaway exit after stealing from unsuspecting people.
Brandon reported the incident to the mall management, who claimed that the CCTV at the entrance was not functional.
However, it was revealed that most of the CCTV cameras at the mall were non-functional, and the few functional ones gave blurred images incapable of identifying anyone.
Not long ago, armed thugs made away with an unknown amount of money from Naivas Supermarket in the mall.
According to Kasarani OCPD Peter Kimani, cases of theft at the mall had been reported, and they were investigating.
“We are working with the victims and proprietors of the mall to investigate the cases,” Kimani said.
Mountain Mall's manager, John Chege, conceded that there had been two incidents but added that they had engaged the police and tightened security.
“We added security cameras and have included plain clothes guards to mingle with the shoppers. We realise this is a high traffic building and need to be extra vigilant,” Chege said.
However, some victims have pointed to the likelihood of collusion between criminals and some mall's staffers.
