Law enforcement officers based in Kisumu thwarted a prison break orchestrated by an armed motorbike-riding attacker on Monday, December 26.
The rider had forcefully entered a detention centre in Kisumu where three suspects, including two Tanzanian nationals, were detained after being arrested.
The fourth suspect, who had hatched the prison break deal, had planned to attack the cops manning the station using a metal bar, rescue the three, and flee on his motorbike.
However, he was neutralized after cops shot him in his arms as he fled from the scene.
"A fourth suspect on a motorbike who attempted to rescue the prisoners using a metal bar had himself to blame after the officers opened fire and shot him in his arms as he fled from the scene," DCI's statement read in part.
The suspects were arrested in possession of eight pieces of elephant tusks weighing 16kg with a street value of over Ksh500,000.
DCI officers acted on a tip-off from the members of the public and, together with Kenya Wildlife Service personnel, they captured the suspects.
According to DCI, the suspects will be arraigned on Tuesday, December 27, to answer charges of poaching and wildlife trafficking.
Their arrest came even as the country increased surveillance and operations against wildlife trafficking.
In August, a Kenyan wanted in the United States for wildlife trafficking was arrested in Meru county.
The suspect had a bounty of up to Ksh119.9 million for his capture and was arrested by detectives in a rented room in Maua, Meru county, where he was hiding.
He was involved in the illegal poaching of more than 35 rhinoceros and more than 100 elephants.
In June, another Kenyan national pleaded guilty to poaching charges before a New York court. The court heard that he had accumulated over Ksh864.8 million in seven years from illegally selling ivory and rhinoceros horns.
