Take your time and just imagine that what you have been seeing in Western action movies on criminals, villains and robberies, was once happening in Kenya in real life. Kenya had some of the most notorious thugs in the 90s.

The names of these Kenyan thugs are surely etched in the minds of Kenyans who fell victims to their attacks; Anthony Ngugi Kanagi ‘Wacucu’, Gerald Wambugu Munyera ‘Wanugu’ and Bernard Matheri Thuo ‘Rasta’.

Their rich profile of criminal activities varied from carjackings, kidnappings, robbery with violence, torture and killing, was only rivaled by another underworld kingpin who faced his demise sooner in 1978 before he could keep terrorizing the country, Nicholas Mwea ‘Wakinyonga’. His reign was ended by crime buster Patrick Shaw.

Described as the ‘godfather’ of future Kenyan gangsters, he was Kenya’s Most Wanted criminal. Wakinyonga was a generous and equally ruthless thug who was killed while clubbing in Kangemi at Nyakiambi Lodge & Night Club.

The trio gang of Wacucu, Wanugu and Rasta was the most dreaded gang in the 90s. Their criminal dealings and constant engagement of police in shooting standoffs lead to the creation of Special Forces to bring an end to their criminal activities.

They were not only a threat to Kenyans and the police, but the tourism industry too.

Their aliases were meant as a disguise from their real identities. Wacucu means ‘Of the grandmother’, Wanugu means ‘Of the monkey’ and Rasta’s evil look was underscored by his dreadlocks.

According to KTN investigative team Jicho Pevu, the three musketeers ran a syndicate of criminal activities in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa.

In this article, we shall take a look at Wacucu, his biography and life which had police running around in circles for years. Police traced them from 1993 to 1997 when the last of the trio died.

Wacucu’s biography and events leading to his death

Anthony Ngugi Kanagi ‘Wacucu’ was born in Kamuyu village, Nyeri County. He stayed with his father in Nairobi while his mother stayed in the countryside. He lived in the Shauri Moyo Baptist Centre compound.

Wacucu’s father died of cancer and he went on to live at the church compound until he moved out to rent a place at Dandora, Nairobi. Wacucu had several jobs as a mechanic, a school bus driver, a matatu tout and later on a matatu driver.

Nobody would imagine that a once compassionate, loving young church altar boy would turn out to be one of the most feared gangsters traversing Kenyan soil. Wacucu was suspected to be the leader of the ‘musketeers group’.

On August 21^st, 1995 the police commissioner then, Shadrack Kiruki announced a bounty reward of Sh. 100,000 to anybody who had information that would lead to the capture of any of the gang members, alive or dead.

He later doubled the bounty to Sh. 200,000 after they became quite a force to reckon.

New year’s 1996 government resolution, a dramatic manhunt was launched to find the trio that instilled fear in many Kenyans. The Criminal Investigations Department, CID (currently DCI) resolved to find these men and gun them down, if they faced any retaliation in their arrest.

This was when the elite force known as Alpha Romeo was formed with the sole responsibility to put an end to these criminal masterminds who had been killing and robbing millions repeatedly.

Daniel Seronei was tasked with leading the Alpha Romeo team, and he had the full assistance of the Flying Squad. Three days after Alpha Romeo was formed, they received information on Wanugu and Wacucu’s whereabouts.

It was reported that the duo was in civilian clothes, driving a stolen Toyota, coming from a shop to buy a packet of maize flour. Detectives of the Alpha Romeo team followed them as they were heading to Wanugu’s rented house in Ongata Rongai.

To get their attention, the detectives drew them by using a fancy car that was parked along the way, towards their destination.

The duo stopped and watched the car with the intention of hijacking it. Not realizing the civilians in the car were detectives, they attacked.

All hell broke loose in a gunshot exchange as the detectives shot back at the criminals.

Wacucu died on the spot from a headshot straight to his temple. Wanugu, who wore a bulletproof jacket that day, was severely injured from gunshot wounds.

He picked up his friend’s AK 47 gun and fled away while shooting at police, to cover more ground while escaping.

At the scene of the shoot-out, the detectives recovered a bulletproof jacket that weighed 4kgs, the stolen Toyota Corolla they used with a fake license plate and a cassette tape.

18 years later since the death of ‘Wakinyonga’, Wacucu fell at the age of 29 years.

Wanugu’s biography and events leading to his death

Gerald Wambugu Munyeria alias Wanugu, was a Kenyan criminal who died in the mid-90s aged 26 years.

Wanugu’s mother was against the papers and news that her son was a mastermind thug. She said that her son was born in 1973 and at his death, he would be 23 years revoking the 26 years stated by the Police commissioner.

Wanugu worked as a matatu tout and later a matatu driver before he turned his life to crime. He was also trained in martial arts, working as a Karate trainer at Kariokor Hall, Nairobi.

Wanugu once confronted the police in a shootout where he saw his leader, friend and criminal compatriot, Wacucu, succumb to a bullet wound in the head. He managed to run away from the scene just by sheer luck.

Despite that heavy confrontation with CID’s Alpha Romeo team, Wanugu kept on with his criminal activities. The Alpha Romeo squad sought him and was convinced that he had fled to Mombasa.

In April 1996, Wanugu was ambushed by the Alpha Romeo team around the coastal city and he managed to evade them. He went on to kill a British aid worker at Farm Africa, Mr Christopher Maurice. This prompted the police to launch a manhunt for him both on land and air.

After murdering the man, he and his gang accomplices went into hiding in a nearby forest. The family of Mr. Maurice even donated a helicopter to help the police in the search for the killer in the forest.

This was in late May 1996, a month after he had killed. Land and air police could not find him.

The chopper donated by the family was withdrawn four hours into the search and later on, the police ended their search when they were convinced that he had fled from the forest after searching every inch of it.

Wanugu went into hiding in Nakuru. This was where he met his fatal end, a month later on June 27^th, 1996. Ironically, he died eighteen years and one day later after Wakinyonga died on June 26^th, 1978.

Wanugu lived in a rented house in Nakuru and according to the locals, he was rarely seen out of his home. Whenever he chose to walk outside, he always wore a red or blue-wollen cap.

This was meant to help hide his identity from the public as he became the ‘Most Wanted Man’ in the country.

Locals cited that a young woman in her 20s was always with Wanugu at his home, possibly his girlfriend. She accompanied the criminal everywhere including where he faced the pistol at Kabata-ini Shopping Centre.

On June 27^th, 1996 Alpha Romeo team leader, Seronei received a tip-off that Wanugu was hiding in Nakuru. This came after locals spotted him nearly a week before on a Friday, at a shopping centre.

Seronei immediately travelled from the capital to Nakuru to find out his exact hiding spot. To do this well and co-ordinately, Seronei left his team and the Nakuru police at the Nakuru National Park. They would be back up in case anything went wrong.

Giving an interview later to KTN’s Jicho Pevu, Seronei stated his colleagues were scared of ambushing Wanugu.

One of Wanugu’s men was an informer to the CID and Seronei knew all of Wanugu’s dealings through him. Seronei set out to capture the thug alone without help.

He noted that he was in the company of his girlfriend and four other men who were his bodyguards. In total, he had five, inclusive of the anonymous informer.

Before deciding to take the solo mission, he thought about calling for backup before completely shunning the idea. The informer had told him that Wanugu was short of guns and had ordered some from Nairobi.

He was also broke. He decided to confront Wanugu alone, figuring that he had a glorious chance to put an end to all the chase for a man.

Wanugu and his company entered a restaurant and ordered Ugali and meat stew. While the food was being cooked, the group went to a butchery opposite the restaurant to order meat soup. Seronei was at the restaurant disguised as a mechanic, offering to buy himself and some customers a meal.

After Wanugu had left the restaurant after eating, Seronei followed them. He stood a few centimetres from the exit. Facing him was the butchery.

The distance between him and his fate was about 7 metres. Having made up his mind, he pulled out one of the two pistols from his trouser and pointed it at Wanugu.

Wanugu was ordered to surrender by Seronei. He retaliated and used his girlfriend as a human shield to keep any bullets the cop fired away from his body. At the same time, he shot at Seronei.

Seronei returned fire and the two, Wanugu and his girlfriend, died on the spot from head injuries. Their bodies had so many bullet holes.

His bodyguards shot at the Seronei and missed, managing to escape through the butchery’s back door.

Some of the crimes Wanugu was to be convicted of include

• The murder of 2 CID officers in Thika, who were shot while in their cars.
• Rape
• Murdering two women
• Murdering countless men
• Murdering 2 GSU officers

The death of Wanugu and Wacucu narrowed the police chase to one person. The spotlight was all on him, Bernard Matheri Thuo alias Rasta.

Rasta’s biography and events leading to his death

Bernard Matheri aka Rasta was a man who loved his guns. He lived, loved and killed by them. Rasta is a renowned sharpshooter said to have honed his survival skills and shooting by scampering chickens and human beings as targets for practice.

Rasta was the kind of criminal who got tired of gifting his girlfriend chocolates and expensive jewelry and instead, he chose to get her an AK47 riffle. He says the other items were too ordinary.

After the death of his colleagues, Wacucu and Wanugu, Rasta managed to stay away from the police radar for more than a year. He would bribe police officers who would give information on the Flying Squads and Alpha Romeo’s next move in their search for him.

Rasta wasn’t the kind of villain that killed to end one’s life. He would inflict insurmountable pain and torture on the victim before deciding to finally kill.

To victims who would snitch on his whereabouts to the authority, he would find them by all necessary means and pull out their nails using his bare hands.

Later he would decide their fate and if they were lucky, they get to live for a few more hours.

Rasta was the gang leader who would leave his henchmen to handle the police when they were ambushed. Some would die in the shoot-out and Rasta would never let their death be in vain.

One instance was in 1996 when Rasta’s men were shot at the GSU roundabout on Thika Highway. Rasta fled and in response to the gunning of his men, he threw a grenade at GSU headquarters.

He was even bold enough to confront the police on his own. One time he opened an entire magazine on police who had to run for their safety. All these acts made him ‘The Most Wanted Man in 1997’.

Rasta had a weakness though and this is what led to his death. The man could not keep away from smoking tobacco. If he did, he would get seriously sick.

On September 1^st, 1997, the Alpha Romeo and Flying Squads received a tip on his hideout. The group located Rasta’s hideout to be in a goat’s pen on his mother’s homestead.

At around 5:00 pm, the team tailed Rasta’s sister who had gone to fetch him tobacco. They followed her to Rasta’s hideout. Rasta spotted the police first and jumped out of the compound fence making way to a valley while shooting at officers.

He did not make it far since his body was ripped with bullet injuries and he fell to the ground lifelessly. During the gunshot exchange, Rasta managed to injure two officers. One on the knee and the other on the arm.

He is accused of committing the following crimes:

• Murder of 2 GSU officers, and a driver working for a government-run television station KBC, in 1993.
• Murder of Senior police officer, Mr. Bernard Kihumba
• Murder of Colonel Augustine Kunyiha, head of the military intelligence
• Murder of 2 women at Ruiru, Kiambu County
• Murder of 3 CID officers at Githurai roundabout, Nairobi