Ksh.17 million stolen from KCB Thika recovered, suspects arrested

Ksh.17 million stolen from KCB Thika recovered, suspects arrested

Police have recovered Ksh.17 million which was part of the Ksh.50 million stolen in the Kenya Commercial Bank, Thika branch heist on November 20, 2017.

The recovery was made after three suspects were arrested at Marurui estate in Kiambu on Saturday, November 25, and led the investigators to Joy Land estate in Juja town where they had hidden the cash.

The suspects were identified as Charles Mwangi Murakaru aged 30 years, Halford Munene Murakaru, 32, and Julius Wainaina, 32. The three are set to be arraigned in court on Monday, November 27.

The detectives from Thika Police Station recovered Ksh.17,135,000 which was in various denominations including US dollars, pounds, Canadian and Australian dollars.

The amount included 1311 US dollars, 340 Great Britain Pounds, 5 Canadian Dollars, 85 Australia dollars, 46,000 Tanzania shillings, 40 South Africa rand and 20,000 Ugandan shillings.

All the recovered cash was transfered to the KCB headquarters in Nairobi for safe custody.

Breaking instruments were also seized from the house together with various Kenyan national identity cards among other material as investigations into bizarre robbery continue.

In what was described as one of the most daring bank robberies in recent Kenyan history, the suspects dug a 30-metre-long tunnel into the bank’s strongroom in Thika Town and stole more than KSh.50 million.

The tunnel was dug from inside a stall opposite the Thika divisional police headquarters, where the alleged criminals had been running a bookshop, through which they accessed the local KCB branch and made away with the whopping amount.

So concealed was the operation, that no one noticed any suspicious activity until Monday last week when the money was discovered missing by the branch manager, Mr Samuel Ng’ang’a.

On Wednesday, November 22, police recovered the excavator used to dig the tunnel which was 10-feet deep and two-feet wide with metal rails and wood planks to cushion the building from collapsing.

Other items that were recovered included a welding gas cylinder, gas mask, planks of wood for supporting the tunnel, cartons for ferrying the sand, overalls, spirit level, battery and inverter for lighting the tunnel during the heist.

Tags:

17 million stolen from KCB bank recovered 50 million stolen in Thika robbery Most daring bank robberies Thika KCB roberry Thika police station Tunnel dug to steal from bank

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