Perfectly planned bank robberies in Kenya have been on the rise with most robbers getting away with lumpsum amounts only to be caught days later because of various hitches in their executions.
As it has been established so far, robbing a bank is a piece of cake but getting away with the crime is the real deal.
In the most recent robbery dubbed Ksh72 heist, that took place on Thursday September 5, a phone signal is what led to the arrest of the excecutors, as Daily Nation reports.
Detectives from Special Crimes Police Unit (SCPU), on Saturday morning, September 7, pounced on Administration Police constable Chris Machogu, in Kisii moments after trailing his mobile phone signal.
Mochogu allegedly had Ksh 1,000 notes with consecutive serial numbers amounting to Ksh3 million.
His arrest led to the arrest of Constable Wycliffe Owuor, in Kendu Bay, who had Ksh4 million on him and a crimson red Subaru Forester registration number KCB 649Z.
Interestingly, what led detectives to Kisii, approximately 300 kilometres away from where the heist occurred is the mobile phone communication between Machogu and another officer also linked to the heist, who was arrested on Friday evening, September 6, in Kikuyu, Kiambu county.
The irony of the matter is since in the era of mobile phone tracking, the masterminds of the heist who turned out to be police officers, simply forgot the one method that they use to track down suspected criminals.
The arrest took place exactly 10 hours after a man reported to Kikuyu Police Station that he had stumbled upon broken cash boxes at the Thogoto forest as he headed to work.
A team of officers from Kikuyu Police Station dispatched to the scene, discovered empty bags from Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic Bank, KCB and Barclays Bank.
They also recovered a mobile phone, a SIM card with serial number 89254021104175661927 and a jacket belonging to G4S.
Police stated that one vehicle, a Toyota Voxy KCE 920E was seized at a garage in Kikuyu where it was being painted from white to black in a bid to beat the justice system.
The owner of the vehicle wanted also wanted its entertainment system ripped off and a new one installed. A new radio, sub-woofers and TV monitors that would cost about Ksh200,000.
This job was given to True Quality Sound Systems, situated along the Southern Bypass.
Only 11 suspects have been arrested so far, among them a gospel musician, Patrick Kagaba alias Kamlesh Kagaba
On Friday, Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku allowed the DCI to hold six G4S employees namely Musa Rajab, Abraham Mwangi Njoroge, Ascar Kemunto, Wilfred Nyambane, Nathan Njiru and Danmark Magembe for
a week to allow for the conclusion of investigations.
However, it has also not been established if the six G4S employees who were arrested had any role to do with the heist.
So far the location of the rest of the money, apart from Ksh7 million recovered on Saturday, September 7, from the two suspects, the rest yet to be recovered.
Also, since none of the nine suspects arrested on Thursday and Friday had money linked to the heist on them means that there could be more suspects roaming free.
