Police officers in Kabete police station were forced to rush matatu robbers to hospital on Sunday, April 24, after they allegedly swallowed poison to conceal evidence that they were involved in stealing from passengers in a Nairobi-bound bus.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the four were nabbed by police officers after the driver of the bus drove into the station, almost ramming into the block.
The officers, who thought that they were under attack, came out after they were alerted by the bus driver - identified as Emmanuel Barasa.
Barasa dashed out of the driver's seat, calling for help, shouting that his bus was under attack. The cops calmed down after establishing that the driver was only seeking help.
The driver narrated that he had had a normal journey from Kisumu until he realised that nearly all his passengers were abnormally snoring in sleep.
"The officers responded swiftly by throwing a cordon around the bus and ordering everyone out. What shocked the officers is that more than half the occupants were sleepy and drowsy," read the statement in part.
From his side mirror, Barasa also noticed some men were walking around the bus - he suspected that they might have been robbing passengers after stupefying them. and that the culprits were still on the bus.
It was then that he made the heroic decision to promptly drive the bus into a police station.
As the passengers came around, most of them had lost their valuables including mobile phones, laptops, tablets and money. However, the officers managed to single out four individuals and recovered the stolen merchandise.
The officers frogmarched the suspects to book them for the offences. To their disbelief, the suspects began acting strangely as they approached the reporting desk, prompting the cops to rush them to the hospital.
"As the officers were booking them, the suspects suddenly become drowsy, incoherent and very drunk, forcing the law enforcers to first rush them to a nearby hospital for medical examination,"
"At the hospital that it was discovered that the suspects who were sweating profusely, had taken a dose of their own medicine after ingesting the remaining ‘pishori’, in a bid to destroy the exhibit," the DCI statement in part.
The suspects were taken back to the station where they were booked and thrown into the cell. Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have launched a probe into the matter.
On the other hand, the passengers were released to continue with their journey to the capital city, The traffic of passengers travelling has been on the rise owing to the opening of schools - passengers have been advised to exercise utmost caution.
