Detectives from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau, posing as jua kali traders on Monday, May 22, arrested two robbery suspects in Kakamega County.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) report, the two suspects were associated with recent armed attacks in Kakamega, Vihiga and Uasin Gishu counties.
The two were arrested after a chase that culminated at river Lwatingu where the main suspect was arrested before he plunged as he attempted to evade justice.
“Posing as jua kali traders, the sleuths had been in the streets and as many drinking joints found in Kakamega in search of the suspect, before making their final move that also led to the recovery of a firearm,” read part of the DCI statement.
Detectives linked the two, to the recent attack on a senior DCI officer, who was seriously injured in Kakamega.
“The officer based at DCI Kakamega north, had just arrived at his residence at around 3am from an assignment in Nairobi, when the thugs who were on a motorbike accosted him at his gate,” read part of the statement.
The detectives explained that the two suspects descended on the officer with a machete inflicting several deep cuts on his head before fleeing into darkness with his Jericho pistol, that was loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition.
“Armed with the stolen firearm, the thugs abandoned the machete as their preferred weapon and went on a robbery spree, targeting mobile money shops and pump stations,” read part of the police report.
The two were linked to an attack at a petrol station in Shibuli shopping centre along Kakamega - Mumias road on April 11, at around 9:30pm before escaping with unknown amount of money.
Two days later, the suspects allegedly attacked a gold dealer in Lwanugu village and took off with Sh55,000, 8 grams of gold, mobile phones and other valuables.
This was after they ordered everyone at the gold mining site to lie down and not raise an alarm but nobody was injured during the incident.
“In yet another incident on April 20, at around 10pm, the gun-toting thugs raided an mobile money agent shop at Mudete market in Maragoli, and took off with unknown amount of money and mobile phones.
After being arrested, the main suspect led police officers to a latrine at his homestead in Lower Tingu, Mugulu area, where a firearm loaded with two rounds of 9mm calibre was retrieved.
The detectives also impounded a motorbike that is believed to have been the gang’s getaway means.
Meanwhile, the suspects were being held at Kakamega police station, as detectives complete investigations and pursue their accomplices who were still at large.
In a different incident, police officers drawn from Kipsitet Police Station in Kericho County on Sunday, May 21, saved a trader on the verge of losing imported goods.
According to a police report, the attempted robbery with violence took place along the Muhoroni-Kipsitet road in the Bangla area.
Kipsitet police officers revealed that they stumbled upon the five-armed gangsters while they were offloading a vehicle they had hijacked.
