Four armed bandits caught law enforcers off guard after they raided a police camp in commando style, orchestrating a well-oiled plan that saw them hold hostage the police base at midday.
On Monday, September 20, the four men, all armed with AK47 rifles trooped into Ewaso Police Patrol Base under Kimanjo Police Station within Laikipia North sub county in broad daylight.
The base is adjacent to Ewaso Trading Center, which is partly at the border of Isiolo north sub county that falls under the jurisdiction of Oldonyiro Police Station.
Surveillance was key for the bandits as they struck at a time when only one police officer was on duty manning the camp.
The police constable fell into the trap as the four accosted him in the report office. The terrified officer could not reach out to call for cavalry as he was disarmed by the bandits.
"They ordered him to hand over his firearm which he had or they shoot him," a police report filed at Kimanjo Police Station read.
The officer, after realising he had already been cornered, handed over his gun and bullets to the bandits in a move to save his life.
"The officer handed the G3 and two magazines with 40 rounds of ammunition," the police report added.
As the four bandits were leaving the post, they broke into his house and took away his police uniform, two jungle trousers, one jungle shirt, one smoke jacket, and one green jungle hat.
Cautious not to leave a trace nor raise curiosity, the bandits never fired a single shot during the incident as they stealthy turned the house upside down in search of other valuable goods.
They, later on, crossed to the Oldonyiro side of the boundary towards the Ewaso River direction after boosting their armoury with police artillery seized during the raid at the patrol base.
A multiagency team that was alerted of the incident arrived a few hours later, regrouped and launched a manhunt for the bandits.
The GSU and regular police opted to use trained dogs to track the scent and direction of the bandits and also used a light aircraft from a neighbouring conservancy to conduct a search and track mission.
"This was a robbery without violence case," the police wrote in their occurrence book report as seen by Kenyans.co.ke.
