Two police officers are in police custody after they were arrested in connection to a robbery with violence incident that culminated in an accident along the busy Mombasa Road on Thursday.
The two criminal officers attached to the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit stole Sh100,000 from a city trader and Sh170,000 worth of kitchenware.
On Thursday morning, the two officers identified as Joseph Kakuli and Kennedy Riendo, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle went to Gatewall Mall and arrested an Egyptian national, Naoman Mosad allegedly for being in the country illegally.
Kakuli and Riendo demanded Sh200,000 to set him free and Mosad told them he only had Sh29,000 in his MPESA account.
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They escorted the foreign national to an MPESA outlet in Imara Mall for him to withdraw the amount.
While still on their way to the mall, the visibly traumatised Mosad contacted Susan Makena, the director of Apogee Warehouse Group, who caught up with the party at the mall right before Mosad completed the transaction.
She instead proposed that they make a formal report at the Mlolongo Police Station for the lawful police action to take its course.
However, these two officers did not welcome the idea and reluctantly agreed to Makena’s suggestion and boarded her car to Mlolongo.
Riendo who was in police uniform sat in the co-drivers seat while Kakuli who was in plainclothes was at the back with Mosad.
Along the way to Mlolongo Police Station, Riendo said the two were wasting their time and threatened unknown action, including death for Mosad and Makena.
Meanwhile, in the car's backseat, Kakuli fetched his handcuffs and slapped them on Mosad’s wrists before ransacking his packets from which he fished Sh100,500.
In what seemed to be a well-coordinated ploy, Riendo snatched Makena’s phone and threw it in the backseat before yanking the vehicle’s handbrake, making Makena lose control of the vehicle and swerve in the opposite direction it was going.
When the vehicle swerved, it was involved in an accident with an oncoming pickup truck that ended up in a ditch.
Riendo and Kakulin quickly disembarked from the vehicle and scrammed from the scene.
Detectives and general duty officers from Embakasi Police Station who were alerted about the incident quickly responded to the emergency and rescued the victims who survived the ordeal with no injuries.
Little did the criminals know that while they were escaping from the scene, they had forgotten their handcuffs, which could be traced back to them.
They crept back after switching clothes to collect them and clean up the scene of any evidence that could link them to the incident.
They alleged they were earlier in the vehicle and the driver of the vehicle had deliberately caused the accident with an intention of killing them.
The other detectives could not buy their narrative and immediately arrested Riendo and Kakuli for further probing.
Police recovered 7 boxes of kitchenware which were stolen from a vehicle in Mlolongo while Riendo and Kakuli are in custody, awaiting to be arraigned in court to face robbery with violence charges.