NAIROBI police have mapped out major hotspots where you are likely to be attacked after withdrawing large amounts of money from banks. Among the major crime-prone areas are banks along Parliament Road, Ngara, the Taj Mall area in Embakasi and Thika Road Mall.
The latest survey came after police observed a rise in cases of abduction of people leaving banks after withdrawing large amounts of money. The criminals then dump their victims in isolated areas such as Karura Forest and Ngong Forest.
Police said the criminals pose as police officers in civilian clothes and use civilian cars.
Victims who have recorded statements claim that the criminals are armed with handcuffs, police radios and pistols. They accost their targets moments after leaving the banks, warn them that they are under arrest after which they bundle them into a car, steal the cash and dump them.
Yesterday, Deputy Inspector General of Police Grace Kaindi told the Star that the police have launched a major crackdown on criminals who have been posing as police officers before robbing customers leaving banking halls. She said the situation is under control.
Nairobi police Chief Benson Kibui said police had observed a new wave of the crimes. He claimed police investigations have pointed to some Administration Police officers assigned to guard banks who collude with bank tellers. Kibui said police are investigating the different cases reported in Nairobi.
Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Administration Police Samuel Arachi however dismissed the findings by regular police and said there was no evidence linking his officers to the crimes.
“These are merely criminals and there is no evidence to prove they are AP officers,” Arachi told the Star on the phone.
Kasarani police chief Augustine Nthumbi, in whose jurisdiction the criminals have terrorized people for the past six months, said police had busted a racket of bank tellers and AP officers behind the theft and wiped out the crime in the area.
He said that the area has not witnessed such crimes in the last six months after police arrested and charged four people believed to be the masterminds. The suspects included AP officers charged with manning banks.
Kibui, who prior to his appointment as the Nairobi police chief, and served in Western province in the same capacity, noted that these crimes were rampant in Western in 2011 and 2012. He said cooperation between the public and the police helped him tame the crimes.
He did not however reveal the strategy that he will employ in tackling these crimes in Nairobi.
Another senior detective who requested not to be named said investigations by the Flying Squad had revealed that some of the criminals include officers from the Kilimani police station who were interdicted in 2012.
Last week officers from Nairobi Central Police Division arrested six men after a National Intelligence Service agent reported that she had been robbed of Sh100,000.
She said that she had been accosted by people pretending to be police officers who bundled her into a civilian car, robbed her and dumped her on the Kiambu road on August 29.
– the-star.co.ke
