Former police officers prime suspects in bank robbery
Former police officers, among them an ex-General Service Unit (GSU) officer with a past criminal record, are suspected to have carried out the daring Tuesday morning raid on Matuu Equity Bank in Machakos County.
The suspects robbed customers of their cash and an unknown amount of money from the bank at gunpoint on Tuesday at around 9.10am.
Preliminary investigations by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) also point an accusing finger at the two officers who were manning the bank, indicating they were part of the robbery plot and execution.
The investigations, spearheaded by Machakos police boss Issa Muhamud and his DCI counterpart Charles Mutua has opined that the manner in which the robbery was committed, “the attackers were either rogue police officers or ex-officers. ”
One of the suspects has been identified as an ex-GSU who hails from Masinga area but was based in Masinga before being sacked from the service.
The investigators also suspect the two officers; Constables Patrick Omusebe and Dorothy Opili who were guarding the bank, as complicit in the robbery.
The two who have been subjected to a probe, projected themselves as victims after they allegedly sustained bruises on both hands and also disarmed of their AK47 rifles, both loaded with 60 rounds of ammunition by the gunmen.
The robbery took approximately 20 minutes and of concern to the investigators is how Omusebe, despite having several opportune moments to free himself, did not and was captured interacting with the armed robbers terroriing the bank customers.
The robbers who police say “are known Nairobi City County robbers”, appeared very tolerant towards him.
“While the gang was robbing customers in the banking hall, PC Omusebe was seen conversing with the thugs in the bank despite all the opportunity to flee. It is subject to investigations, which will reveal more.
The bank robbers were very lenient to the PC Omusebe for reasons known to them and this was suspicious, unusual and unnatural to the team.
The team is following more leads with the help of telephone providers and human intelligence,” police said in their brief to Police Headquarters.
An initial police report said: “A CCTV footage captured the men, one in a black suit, forcefully pushing the male officer into a room as the already disarmed female colleague ran around helplessly.
“The officers were disarmed of AK47 rifles, serial numbers 5527115 and 5526385, respectively, with a total of 60 rounds of ammunition.”
