Four suspects are in police custody after they were arrested for allegedly breaking into a parked vehicle at South C’s Rumi Estate in Nairobi and getting away with Ksh.50,000. An investigation by the DCI led to their arrest.
The four Fabian Ochieng Ndubi, Fredrick Wanyingi, Kevin Adote Onyango and Phil Scholten Ail were seized last week andprsented before the Kibera Law Courts where they pleaded not guilty to all charges.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the suspects faced three counts of conspiracy to commit a felony contrary to section 393 of the penal code: stealing from a locked motor vehicle contrary to section 279(g) of the penal code and malicious injury to property contrary to section 339 of the penal code.
Using the CCTV footage from both scenes, the DCI said that Forensic analysts at the Imaging and Acoustic Unit traced and identified one of the suspects who led them to his accomplices.
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In what the police termed a well-orchestrated crime, the DCI recorded that the February 3 incident saw the four trail a businessman after he made a bulk transaction of Ksh.350,000 at Equity Bank Nairobi West Branch.
“Detectives would later unearth in this particular case that the male victim halted his Mercedes Benz at the Equity Bank Nairobi West Branch at around 2.30 pm, where he withdrew Ksh.350,000 meant for payment of his workers at a construction site,” said the DCI in a statement on Friday.
“Unbeknownst to him and the bank security, therein was a man pretending to be filling account opening documents, but who stole quick glances at the withdrawal counters to spot any bulky transactions. At the parking yard in a white Mazda Demio were his three accomplices, awaiting his signal for whoever their target would be.”
The thugs kept a safe distance as they trailed the unsuspecting victim who drove off to Rumi Estate using their vehicle which bore a forged registration KDC 906L.
“As one of the suspects monitored the victim’s movement, another who was armed with a catapult and a spark plug headed for the driver’s window. The third was the getaway driver,” read a part of the statement.
According to the DCI, one man shattered the driver’s window and stole Ksh.50,000 since the businessman had alighted with the larger sum of Ksh 300,000.
The victim filed a report at the Akila Police Station before the sleuths’ launched investigations. By Friday, 10th February, the DCI says, the entire syndicate had been arrested and the two motor vehicles (KDD 515Q Mazda Demio and a KCE 107Y Toyota Belta) used in trailing victims were detained together with the recovered tools of the trade including the catapult and nine spark plugs.
A further probe into the matter also established that Ochieng’ jointly with another has a similar pending case of stealing Ksh 600,000 from a locked motor vehicle in June 2022, where they presented fake names at the same law courts as Raymond Muramba Mueni and Muthui Mutua.
DCI urged citizens to be on the lookout for such modes of robbery, security manning banks to be vigilant.
