Nairobi CID officer arrested after losing gun to criminals

NAIROBI COUNTY: A police officer has been arrested after he claimed he was robbed of his gun in a carjacking incident in Kayole area, Nairobi.

The CID officer attached to Railway police was detained on Tuesday evening after he made the claim at the Kayole police station.

He told his seniors that he was attacked and robbed at about 4 am on Tuesday as he drove home. But his colleagues decided to hold him after he made the report at about 2pm.

"We are investigating the incident because he took too long to come and report. We want to know what happened," said Nairobi police boss Benson Kibue.

The pistol had 12 bullets at the time of the incident, officers said. The said constable said he was carjacked from the city centre and dumped in Kayole.

The incident is the latest in a series that have seen police lose guns to suspected criminals in suspicious circumstances. The weapons are usually used to commit crimes in the country.

Last month, a bodyguard attached to the Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi was arrested for losing his firearm in Embakasi area in the city.

In the same month, a pistol was recovered from four men who had been killed in a botched robbery in Syokimau area, Nairobi.

The pistol is said to have been robbed from an officer in Embakasi area before it was later found in the hands of the suspects. Police also found another gun on the four but the source of the weapon is yet to be known.

Last year, two policewomen attached to Nairobi's Shauri Moyo police station were stabbed and their loaded guns; an AK-47 rifle and Taurus pistol snatched while on night patrol.

The two women were on night patrol in the crime infested area contrary to police operational orders that require a female officer be assigned alongside male counterparts but not alone due to their perceived vulnerability.