New tactics used by taxi thieves revealed

Unsuspecting city commuters have fallen victim to rampant thieves who masquerade as fellow travellers. They strike using several tactics such as jamming the exit door, requesting for loose money, searching your bag stealthily or even requesting you to adjust a side mirror for the driver. As John Abimanyi writes, some taxi operators have groups which they use to execute the night thefts along routes blacklisted by the police.

Aisha Naiga, a student at Makerere Business Institute (MBI), was on her way to a friend’s place after school on Tuesday when she fell victim to a new wave of taxi robberies.

“I got a taxi at the small gate (at Makerere) that was heading to town,” she narrates still in shock. “I sat in the front seat. After some time, the man seated next to me asked me to straighten the driver’s mirror. Then as I was working on the mirror, the one seated next to me offered to help me,” she adds.

“I did not understand how they reached into my bag. Then suddenly, they said that they were not going to reach town, but that they would drop me at Sir Apollo Kaggwa Primary School. When I gave them a Shs500 coin, the driver told me not to pay but that I should use the money to pay for another taxi,” she narrates.

At that point, she alighted, went to see a friend. But on reaching her destination, Naiga realised that her money purse was missing; and then she remembered the taxi she had boarded. Inside the purse was Shs70,000 and an ATM card.

“I rushed back to the spot where I left the taxi and I found it trying to load passengers, some distance away. I rushed to the taxi and as approached, it they it sped off,” she says.

“I then got a Boda boda and asked him to follow the taxi because they had robbed me. We chased them and other Bodaboda cyclists joined in. We ended up somewhere in Nakulabye and four of the passengers were caught and arrested.”

Sophisticated tactics
Naiga’s shocking story is just one of many others who have lost valuables to thieving taxi men. The police have now arrested over 15 suspects in and around Kampala in connection with taxi robberies. The suspects, who deny any involvement in the racket, are taxi drivers and conductors.

And the tricks they are employing to rob unsuspecting passengers show a reasonable graduation from aggressive and physical uses of force to cunning methods that leave their victims helpless.

The police and victims’ testimonies indicate the taxi operators connive with at least seven other people in a taxi and together, hook a taxi which they use to pounce on an unlucky passenger.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Ibin Ssenkumbi says in order to avoid arrest the thieving taxi operators choose a different route from the one they normally operate.

“The conductor and driver, plus at least seven other thieves masquerading as passengers, then stop to pick a lone passenger along a deserted stretch of the road,” he says. “The role of the other “passengers” is to give the passenger confidence that it is a genuine taxi,” he adds.

The thieves will then lead you to sit along the conductor’s seat. A few minutes into the journey, one passenger will pass a counterfeit note to the conductor.

The conductor then either uses it as part of your balance, or, asks you to help him with loose notes. When you suspect that the note is fake, the rest of passengers then come in to support the conductor, asserting that the note is indeed genuine.

That in turn leads you into accepting that it is genuine money. Victims have only realised that they have been duped after arriving home. At times, the conductor disappears in the crowd of the passengers so that it looks like only the driver is in charge of the taxi. Then, as you arrive at your destination, the driver asks you to open the door. Unknowing to the passenger, the conductor’s door has been jammed.

So as the passenger struggles to open the door, even trying to use both hands, they leave their bag or pockets unattended and the other passengers then reach out for any valuables like wallets, money purses and cell phones. In this case too, the passenger only realises after they have left the taxi. Police say the thieving rackets choose long stretches of the road that are nearly deserted. The roads along which this act has been reported include the Northern By-pass, the roads from Wandegeya to Ntinda, Nakulabye to Kasubi, Bugolobi to Luzira, and Ntinda to Nakawa.

Because the thieves never operate along their normal routes, Mr Ssenkumbi says, Police has found it difficult to track them because right after they steal, they flee back to their normal stations.

Some of the culprits have been arrested after a victim and a number of bodaboda cyclists engaged the taxi in a chase in Nakulabye suburb, while others were caught after Police tracked down the registration numbers of reported taxis.

This form of crime, which first reared its claws early this year, had disappeared following a concerted effort by the police and the public. Mr Ssenkumbi says the festive season has seen the thieves come out and start pouncing again. “They expect that people have money now that the festive season is here,” he says.

Blame game
The police also blamed Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association, (Utoda) for not screening their drivers and allowing previously blacklisted ones to operate taxis again.

However, Utoda director, John Ndyomugenyi said his association had not been informed about which drivers should not be allowed to drive again. Police say they have not got any details of the use of guns and other weapons. But they advise passengers to look out for the thieves’ tricks. Passengers should also take note of the registration numbers for the taxis and report to police as soon as such an act comes up.