Two KCB employees arrested over theft of more than Sh20 million

Police in Taita-Taveta County are holding two senior Kenya Commercial Bank employees in connection with the loss of millions of shillings this week.

Police who described the incident as an inside job confirmed that more than Sh20.6 million had been stolen in the past one week.

The mysterious disappearance of the money at Wundanyi KCB Branch has baffled the bank authorities and the security apparatus who had intensified investigations into the theft incident.

Mwatate OCPD Monica Kimani confirmed the theft of money and said the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is handling the issue.

Briefing The Standard about the theft, the police officer who is also the acting Taita Sub County OCPD said the two suspects had been remanded at Wundanyi Police Station and investigations into the incident launched.

“The two suspects are the custodians of the keys to the strong room. One of them is a safe attendant while the other has a code to the strong room. No one has access to the strong room except the two and we are interrogating them in connection with the theft incident,” said Ms Kimani.

The police officer said on Monday that the suspects worked well until 3PM when they claimed that they could not access the safe. “The suspects told the KCB Bank Manager that the safe had been locked and was inaccessible,” said Ms Kimani.

The police officer said the manager called a technician to come and assist to open the safe but in vain. “The manager later called for tools from Mombasa office to break into the strong room,” said the OCPD.

The police boss said when the strong room was broken into on Thursday, the bank official found the money missing.

She said the bank management then alerted police who swung into action.

Kimani said investigations were launched leading to the arrest of the two suspects.

The incident comes at a time when many questions were being raised about how such a huge amount of money could find its way out despite the heavy presence of security personnel attached to the bank in Wundanyi town, Taita Taveta County.

When The Standard visited the financial institution on Saturday morning, no bank official was ready to talk. But customers are still worried about the safety of their money. “We are worried about the safety of our money in the bank. How can this possibly happen?” questioned one of the customers.