July 4, 2006: Cabinet minister Mukhisa Kituyi comes to terms with a terrifying carjacking ordeal that saw him beaten, robbed of more than Sh280,000 and then dumped among bushes in the middle of the night. Four armed gangsters brandishing their guns and threatened to kill him and his driver if they raised their heads. And Dr Kituyi said he survived only by cooperating with the thugs, whom he described as menacing young men. The gangsters seemed not to know their victim, he said, and they asked him repeatedly what he did for a living, as they hit him with their gun butts and stripped him of cash, his cellphones, credit cards and a Rolex watch. Most of the cash — Sh70,000, 2,000 euros and 300 Swiss francs — was in a briefcase, while they grabbed a further Sh5,000 from his wallet. He also lost his glasses and, most precious of all, his gold wedding ring. The gangsters, armed with two pistols and two AK47 assault rifles, had stopped him at gunpoint at around 10pm on Brookside Drive in Nairobi’s Westlands suburb, near the junctions with Eldama Ravine and Peponi roads.