Four police officers arrested in Sh2.2 million salary theft

Four police officers have been arrested for allegedly stealing Sh2.2 million salary meant for casual workers at a private city school.

The officers are accused of stealing the money from a locked car parked outside Rophine International School in Utawala, Embakai Sub-County, in Nairobi on June 2.

Sergeant Antony Ndegwa, Corporal Daniel Lekakeny and Constable Antony Mwendwa are Directorate of Criminal Investigations officers from Kasarani, while Constable Simon Macharia is a police officer from Ruai Police Station.

They were arrested on June 6 at Kasarani Police Station car park and over Sh400,000 recovered from them. They were arrested alongside two others — Young Wakhisi and Lukas Magoiga Chacha.

The six suspects were arraigned before Milimani Senior Resident Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo.

Inspector Dominic Omondi, the lead investigator in the matter, requested for 14 days to conclude investigations.

The complainant is Mr Victor Owino, an accountant at Rophine International School, who on June 3 made a withdrawal of Sh2,361,000 at the Family Bank Utawala branch which was meant to pay workers.

The magistrate ordered that the suspects be detained at Kayole Police Station pending further orders from the court.

After withdrawing the money, Owino drove to the school located in Mihang'o in a Toyota Axio car with registration number KCE 535L, parked outside the school premises and entered the school with Sh161,000, leaving the rest of the money in the car which he had securely locked,

"Minutes later, Omondi went to fetch the remaining Sh2,200,000 but found it missing from the car." Mr Onsarigo heard.

Mr Owino went to the Mihang'o police station and reported the matter.

When the school's CCTV cameras were retrieved, footage showed a silver saloon car with registration number KCR 595D and three occupants getting out of the car, entering Omondi's car and making off with the brown envelope containing the money.

At the time of arrest, a search was conducted and the suspects were found with a total of Sh468,000 which is believed to be part of the stolen money and the inventory of the same was signed.

Following the arrest of the four officers, Magoiga and Wakhisi were arrested at Ruai and Huruma respectively and no entries were made in the incident book but they were whisked away by officers from DCIO Kasarani.

Pressing for their arrest, Inspector Omondi told the court that the police needed 14 days to complete investigations.

The officer said they are yet to arrest other suspects who are at large and known to them, apart from recovering the motor vehicle used in the commission of the offence.

"We are also in hot pursuit to recover the remaining stolen amount and also identify the M-Pesa shops where the money was allegedly deposited to record statements," the officer said.

He also told the court that the recovered CCTV images are yet to be analysed by experts from the DCI headquarters for comparison and identification of the suspects.

The four respondents, who are police officers attached to the Investigation Branch, could interfere with the investigation as they have knowledge of the entire process and releasing them could jeopardise the investigation.

The court was also told that Wakhisi and Magoiga have no known whereabouts and it is therefore feared that they may go into hiding and delay the trial.

In his ruling, the magistrate ordered that the four police officers be detained at Kayole police station and the two civilians be detained at Ruai police station.

The court reserved its decision on whether to allow questioning for 14 days.

[email protected]​