Not even President Uhuru Kenyatta is immune from carjacking in ‘Nairobbery’

An average of three carjackings a day in Nairobi has earned the Kenyan capital the unfortunate nickname "Nairobbery". No one it seems, is immune. Not even the president.

A BMW from his security convoy was stolen at gunpoint last week. It has since turned up in neighbouring Uganda.

A spokesman for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta tried to make light of the recent theft, insisting that it was only a police vehicle and not part of an official motorcade when it was seized. But Kenyan media revealed that it was being driven by a serving police inspector who is part of presidential security staff.

Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper said: "The BMW was stolen from Chief Inspector David Machui Maina, who was driving into his home compound in Utawala, Nairobi, when four armed men confronted him. They forced him into the back seat and drove off. They abandoned him a few metres from the Administration Police Training College in Embakasi six hours later."

At least three people have reportedly been arrested: in Nairobi, Nakuru, northwest of the capital, and Bungoma, a town on the border with Uganda.

The Nakuru suspect is a mechanic who allegedly illegally altered the car. But his lawyer Cliff Ombetta told Capital FM: "The people who took the vehicle to his garage are people he knows well because they are people he had been dealing with, so when they went with that BMW to his garage, there is no way he could know that it was a stolen vehicle. This is an innocent man."

The incident prompted amusement on Twitter. Grace Natabaalo, of the African Centre for Media Excellence in Kampala, tweeted: "In defence of Uganda's gvt; just because Kenyatta's vehicle was found in Uganda doesn't mean we stole it."