PD
By Alphonse Mungahu
Thursday January 12, 2023
Police officers Constable Stanley Gitonga, Corporal Eliud Kipkurui and Sergeant Daniel Wambua Muthini at Milimani Law Courts over robbery with violence attempt on Hassan Omar Abdi of Afro Ltd Forex Bureau Base. PD/CHARLES MATHAI
Three Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers were arrested following a failed attempt to rob a businessman of Sh2 million.
The three were yesterday arraigned and Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi is today expected to rule whether they will be detained further as investigations continue.
The officers were intercepted in Muthaiga area as they drove off with the businessman but without the money that they are believed to have targeted.
Two of the officers were armed with pistols at the time of their arrest.
According to police, a businessman who runs a foreign exchange bureau had withdrawn the money from Absa Bank, Mama Ngina Street branch and was walking with the same to his bureau at about 11am.
While about 20 metres away from the entrance of the bureau along Standard Street, the businessman who was with an employee at the premises, they were confronted by four men who introduced themselves as police officers.Security guards
The officers told them they were after one of the men who was carrying the bag containing the money and he was wanted for an offence which they did not disclose.
One of the men raised an alarm which attracted the nearby security guards and police officers who were guarding the nearby Dahabshil Forex Bureau, rushed to the scene.
A security guard together with a manager immediately took the bag containing the money to the bureau for safe custody.
The two men who had the money were arrested by the four officers using a private car, and claimed they were taking them to the DCI headquarters.
Two of the officers are attached to Kasarani Police Station, one to UN office and another one in Juja.
The motor vehicle, which they were using was detained at regional police headquarters in the Nairobi area.
In his application, the investigating officer Corporal Joseph Omeru told the court that the suspects, Sergeant Daniel Wambua Mthini, Corporal Eliud Kipkurui Bor and Constable Stanley Gitonga.
The court heard that officers from Nairobi region on mobile duties managed to pursue the suspects who were on board a motor vehicle registration number KBZ 0157, make Toyota Premio with the victims on board along Nairobi Kiambu and managed to intercept them and escorted them to Central Police Station whereby the report was booked.
Record statements
“After preliminary investigations revealed that Hassan Abdi Our had withdrawn Sh2 million to enhance his operations at the Forex Base and while on their way out they were confronted by the suspects who claimed to be police officers and in the process a tussle arose but the complainant managed to pass the bag containing the money to his security guard.
The officer said, he needed more time to record statements, obtain a CCTV footage, bank statements, and NTSA data and arms records before preferring any charges against the suspects.
“We pray that this honourable court to grant seven days to detain the respondents at Central Police Station,” he said. “I am apprehensive that the suspects have that will to assist us in tracing and arresting other accomplices hence need to be held in police custody for investigations to be completed the investigations cannot be completed within 24 hours for the forgoing reasons.”