CRIME: The 1997 copycat bank heist that left robbers Sh300 richer

NAIROBI, KENYA: Copycats rushing to replicate Kenya’s biggest bank heist of Sh96 million failed terribly 20 years ago, only managing to nick Sh300 from a customer’s pocket as they fled the scene in a pick-up truck.

One August morning in 1997, six dapper thugs armed with pistols entered the Bank of Baroda on Tom Mboya Street making a beeline to the counter like other customers.

The failed bank raid came a few months after other six sharply dressed, gun-totting robbers had walked out of the Standard Chartered Bank headquarters on Moi Avenue. They made away with Sh96 million stuffed in three gunny bags without firing a single shot in five minutes.

Summoning wisdom from the movies, they drew their guns in the air and ordered customers and bank staff to lie face down on the floor.

The buttoned up robbers, however, were short of confidence exuded by film gangsters because immediately an alarm sounded off, they hit the tarmac leaving behind a pistol holster and three gunny bags.

Determined to at least leave with some cash they ransacked the pockets of a few of the customers.

One Mr David Ogango was the unfortunate victim with the thugs stealing his neatly tucked Sh300 notes.

After the alarm went off, the robbers had realised that they could not access the strong room before the cops arrived and also the chief cashier had not yet arrived.

And when he arrived,  one of the gangsters wielded a pistol and demanded for keys to the safe.

The cashier later told the press that he had outsmarted the thug by giving him the wrong key in a bid to stall the robbery. The gangs then fled in two vehicles, a white Toyota Corolla and a pick-up truck.

Ten minutes later, the police appeared and immediately started combing the building and its environs in search of suspicious characters.

The incident halted businesses along Tom Mboya Street and Moi Avenue as owners panicked.

The then Central Police boss Joseph Kitenyi said that ‘his boys’ were in hot pursuit of the robbers.

The police jumped into unmarked cars and hit the Thika Road in chase after the robbers in suits, reported a local daily. Their daring but failed attempt was one of the many bank robberies infamous in the 1990s.

Newspapers reported that hardly a week passed without banks being robbed with thugs getting better and bolder by the day. In 1999 alone commercial banks had lost Sh500 million from robberies.

An editorial appearing in the East African Standard (now The Standard) in August 1999 said the thieves may have been emboldened by the ease with which guns can be obtained either for hire or bought outright. “In Nairobi, we found out recently, it takes just about half an hour to obtain a powerful gun,” wrote the paper then retailing at Sh20.

The paper reported that the criminals were displaying an aura of calm and bravado as they struck, mostly in broad daylight and showed “total disrespect for the security machinery.”

It added that the thugs were “seriously eroding the belief that the city centre is secure, being the hub of the capital.”

The police described the thefts mostly as inside jobs and ‘mafia-style.’ The 90s were clearly ruthless years and very bad for banks which were easy prey for fearless robbers.