Bank robberies are nothing to write home about. In fact, most of them end up in fatalities and monetary loss.
Notwithstanding, Nairobi, the city in the sun, has had its fare share of dark days. Rampant after the nineties, only reformed robber turned writer and philanthropist, John Kiriamiti, would tell you what it meant even for the perpetrators of the crime.
Carried out by sharply dressed men, a robbery in the early nineties is arguably the biggest in Kenya's capital. Six clean-cut gangsters walked into a bank penniless and walked out millionaires after just five minutes.
Calm and collected, the thieves emptied the entire strong room of a top tier bank's headquarters. Without firing a single shot, the men walked out with a whopping Ksh96 million stacked in bags;Ksh40 million, $90,000 and other currencies in cash.
“I have not seen anything like this and I can assure you that it was an inside and well-executed job,” Nairobi area Criminal Investigations Department boss, Salim Swaleh, told the press.
Perhaps the most bizarre of bank robberies happened in 1999. Six men robbed a bank in Nairobi's Central Business District (CBD) at about 0630hours.
During the three-hour heist, the thieves broke into the popular, 'toa ndugu, toa dada' religious song as they stuffed money and other valuables into bags.
Fast forward to January 2021, six-men staged a robbery at a bank along Mombasa road. Taking advantage of a slow afternoon, when both human and vehicle traffic was low, the six accessed the premises, donning reflector jackets.
One robber remained behind, posing as a security guard. He 'manned' the gate while keeping on the lookout, ready to put out anyone who attempted to foil their plan with a pistol, firmly tucked in his right hand, in the pocket of his jacket.
In the meantime, the security guards are rounded up in one corner by one of the men as the four walked towards the entrance of the bank. Here, they flash out their guns on two policemen attached to the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit.
The police were forced to surrender their guns. As the robbery continued, things outside seemed normal. A video recorded by one of the staff, showed the man at the gate opening and closing the gate for unsuspecting customers.
Meanwhile in the bank, everyone is asked to lay down, as a cashier is held at gunpoint, ordered to stuff money into bags. This prompts the armed man at the gate to call on his accomplices to leave the premises. Soon, the four walk out of the bank with duffle bags suspected to be containing money.
Seven months later, police officers acting on intelligence foiled a plan to rob yet another branch of the same bank, this time, within the CBD. According to the police, a five-man-gang had rented a building next to the bank with the intention of carrying out a rather unnoticed attack.
"Yesterday, we received intelligence report that there were some robbers who were planning to carry out an attack within Ukwala lane. We set ourselves in position and placed ourselves in strategic positions," Central Police Sub-County Commander, John Nyamu, Told the media.
Borrowing a leaf from Tom Cruise's 'Mission Impossible', the five hatched a plan to access the bank from the ceiling. They rented out four rooms in the adjacent building and planned to drill through the concrete ceiling before they were intercepted by the police.
However, the police are not alone in the fight against such organized crimes. Members of the public too play a key role in helping to stop plans by those that intend to earn a paycheck through shortcuts.
On January 19, members of the public intercepted four armed robbers attempting to rob a bank along the University Way in Nairobi. The crowd had cornered the armed robbers and the police had to intervene, shooting in the air, before the visibly agitated lot took the law into their own hands.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), has on several occasions, warned Kenyans against confronting armed robber to avoid putting their lives at risk.
Automated teller machines (ATMs) have also become a soft target for bank robbers. On September 5, 2019, one of the biggest heist was carried out on an ATM in Nairobi West.
Criminals posing as police officers robbed personnel from a leading security company Ksh72 million. As protocol dictated, the personnel would be escorted by armed security officers from the company's headquarters to various ATMs, where they load cash into the machines.
In a twist of events, when they got to the first booth, the gun wielding "officers" turned on them, and ordered them to offload all the money into their vehicle. Later that day, 13 empty cash boxes and bags from different banks were recovered in Thogoto Forest, Kiambu County.
Two days after staging the heist, two officers, an administration police constable Chris Ayienda and a regular police constable Vincent Owuor were arrested by the Serious Crime Prevention Unit of the DCI. Detectives recovered Ksh4 million and Ksh3 million from the two respectively.
Police revealed that a social media post by Ayienda, writing a letter to money, led them to him. They also recovered a brand new Subaru Forester, believed to have been bought by money from the loot. The two had planned to escape to neighbouring Uganda.
Ayienda and Owuor added to three other suspects arrested on September 5. Thirteen staff from the security company were also detained at the Lang'ata Police Station for questioning.
In April 2019, thieves made away with a total of Ksh11 million after breaking into 3 different ATMs of the same bank. In Buruburu, the thugs made away with Ksh6.2 million, at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) ATM, Ksh4.3 million was stolen while at the Matter Hospital Branch, Ksh1 million was stolen.
The robbers were accused of electronically tampering with the machines. It was only when a logistics manager was sent to service the machines that it was discovered the money missing.
In 2016, an unknown number of men made away with Ksh26 million in Eastlands, Nairobi. They allegedly accessed the bank by drilling a hole though the rear wall.
Using gas welding machines, they accessed the bank's strong room as well as cash deposit units of ATMs attached to the bank. The police suspected that the robbery was an inside job.
Notably, some of the thefts were not limited to the banks. In 1993, 14 gangsters accosted an official from the International Red Cross. Sami Sidani, who had just withdrawn Ksh74 million from a city bank, found himself surrounded by the men at the junction of Nairobi’s Dennis Pritt Road, State House and Ralph Bunche roads.
Firing few rounds in he air, they ordered Sidani to hand over the money in both local and foreign currency. They then stashed the loot in bags and briefcases, hopped into a getaway car and sped off emptying more magazines.
