Simply BJ...

Trials & Tribulations of BJ continued....

Have you ever been a victim of an armed car jacking ?

Needless to say that this is a highly volatile and potentially dangerous situation to be in.


Well folks sit back, buckle up as I share with you NOT one but two very dangerous car jacking incidents that I went through both in a span of 6 months forcing me to make quick & huge decisions with my life.

Incident # 1
This took place in the month of November some years back, one evening as I drove home from college, I was driving with my colleague from school and I was going to drop him home. No names but for the sake of the story lets call him ‘Charlie. So, Charlie lived in a not so safe part of town but I had been there many many times incident free and having grown up in a tough neighborhood never bothered me one bit. So am driving and I take this corner and we are maybe 200 meters to his house and I notice another car take the corner too suddenly from nowhere. Am chilled out and easy but have my eye on this car following me from behind.

Suddenly I get hit from the back not once, not twice but three times and am going absolutely ballistic in the car wondering what the F$%@*. Mmh I know I should never have done this, but the street in me took over. I had just gotten my car from the garage just 2 days before where it had a full paint job and this damn ass just hit my car. My friend Charlie was going crazy too and as soon as I hit the brakes to stop we were both out fists clenched ready to F^*&%$ the other guy/s up. At first one guy jumped out as if to apologize and I was just about to land him an uppercut when two other guys popped out at lightning speed . The next thing I felt a cold hard metal thingy poking my chest. I look and notice it’s a black automatic pistol and I melt like butter on a hot pan.

My dude Charlie was going through the same rough treatment and we both backed up, hands in the air and they forced us to the floor in the back of my car. Charlie & I fitted here with no problem. One other guy joined us at the back and the other two guys took the front seats and started to drive away. At this time the guy at the back is really manhandling us and hitting us to the head with the butt of the gun. Ati you guys thought you can fight us, eeh eeh. Man they gave it to us but we were easy and we spoke to them calmly in some street language helping to diffuse their anger. We told them we both did not work and were just from school, expected to sit for our final exams in a couple of weeks. I had many files & books in the back seat and this helped validate our story. We told them all we need is our books and they can have the car and anything else and just begged for our lives. I said the car belonged to my dad and that he let me drive it to college every evening.The guy driving suddenly curses and he says that the car has no gas and that we need to stop and refuel.

By this time the guys let us sit up like passengers and I realize that we are now I downtown. I try sneak a peep at the guy next to me and he hits my jaw so hard telling me not to try be smart. We stop at a BP gas station and they put in a quarter tank of gas from all the money that Charlie & I had. By this time I had removed and hidden a gold watch that I had down on the carpet. One of the guys had seen it the first time we jumped out of the car to fight. I denied and he insisted and the other guys told him it must be the other guy from a previous jacking on the same night. It all came back to me now, that car that had been used to hit us had also been stolen and the driver had been left tied in the trunk. This I also gathered from them as they drove.Long story shorter, we go round to Nairobi West - South B where we jack another car from this lady as she drove home from work. The 2 guys sitting at infront get out and mug her, one guy gets into her car and drives off, the other guy runs back to my car and starts to drive following the other jacked car. By this time the lady is screaming raising some attention. Her car had the anti hijack and guess what? It sure did work.


About a mile down the road the fuel cuts out and stalls, so the guy picks her handbag in the back seat and runs back to my car. By this time the much dreaded flying squad police have been notified and within minutes we had a car chasing us on Uhuru Highway. Immediately Charlie & I realized that we were in real danger and if the police decided to shoot we would be dead meat.

These were seasoned vets and did not even panic, they drove at 140kph approaching Haile Selassie round-a-bout. The thug on the front passenger side lowered his window and placed an AK-47 on the door. He told the driver to stay on the outside lane and as soon as they hit the round-a-bout to take the inside lane giving him full view of the cop car closely chasing us and a clear vantage to take them out. This was not the movies guys but the real deal and I was saying my prayers to get out of this alive. As soon as the cops saw the barrel of the gun, they wisely drove straight past the round-a-bout. So we managed to lose them at least for a minute. These guys were well dressed, smart and none of them was past 23 yrs of age. Shocking isn't it?? I know!!!

By this time word was out and the search was on. We drove to Kimathi street where these guys jumped out and jacked another car right outside where Visions or for the ol school guys Beat House used to be. Charlie and I were left in the car, we stayed there for a moment looked up and realized that it was now safe to get up. The keys were in the ignition and we were in the middle of the road in a wrecked car at 1.00 AM. So I got to the drivers seat and Charlie got in as well and I drove off, this time no one was saying anything and as I was driving home, Charlie tells me that I should drive to the police station and report. I argued for a while that it wasn’t necessary since I had my car back and all was fine apart from the car.

It was a good thing I listened to him coz the call was still out and as soon as we got to Central Police Station we could hear clearly on the walkie talkie radio’s the description of my car and where it was last seen. The cops told us that we would not have made it home alive and instructions had been issued that the car had 5 armed thugs in it, SHOOT TO KILL.

We took a cab and went home, I picked my car a few days later, fixed it and sold it. Just 6 months later I was in yet another one of those crazy situations. To fill you in on a later posting. Already this has to go down as one of the most scary moments in my life and after my second incident definitely a turning point. Also this is a damn long post already.

Guys cherish life and enjoy it every single moment for you just never know when it is threatened or in real danger.

Hey and by the way only Charlie & I in a class of about 35 passed all 4 papers in the final exams. God was watching the whole time and rewarded us accordingly. (not to say that we were not chops, we were)

Still - BORN FREE, RIDE WITH ME!!

posted by Shaggy @ 12:12 PM