Keiyo North Police Commander Tom Makori on Wednesday, April 12, revealed how the force was tricked to help bandits in a daring move.
Speaking to the press, Makori recounted the events that led armed bandits to storm Iten County Referral Hospital on the night of Monday, April 10 and rescue one of their own.
Makori revealed that the bandits tricked the police into getting one of them to the hospital after he was seriously injured during an attack.
“We received a call that there had been a banditry attack in Elgeyo Marakwet West and that some locals had been seriously injured,” the police commander recounted what transpired.
Makori explained that police officers rushed to the area and took the injured victims to Iten Hospital.
“We thought that we were helping victims, at that time we did not know that we were aiding criminals,” he remarked.
Later, when the bandit was receiving treatment for gunshot wounds, police officers who had taken him to the hospital received a tip from their colleagues in Baringo.
“Our counterparts told us that the person was not even injured during the Elgeyo Marakwet West attack.
“It came to light that he had sustained injuries during a fierce shootout at Baringo North,” Makori recalled the exact time they realised they had been duped.
On why they did not arrest the bandit after receiving the news, he explained, “We got that information one-hour past midnight, we could not stage an operation that deep in the night.”
Makori revealed that police officers were instructed to swing into action in the morning to arrest the bandit and take him to Baringo County to answer charges.
His colleagues could have got a whiff of the impending arrest as they stormed inside the hospital and rescued their colleague.
The statement by Keiyo North Police Commander was made a few hours after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki explained to National Assembly why the police did not stop the illegal rescue operation.
"The reason why that happened is that the commanding officer on site determined that a shootout inside the hospital would have caused fatalities on patients,” the CS to Members of Parliament while fielding questions from lawmakers on Wednesday, April 12.
