Police officers vanish with Sh78 million on transit, colleagues launch hunt

NAIROBI, KENYA: Police were Monday night hunting down their colleagues who escaped with more than Sh78 million that they were escorting to a bank in Nairobi.

Three officers who were escorting the cash are missing but their guns, uniforms and a vehicle they were in was found abandoned in Huruma slums, Nairobi.

Also in their company were two KK Security who could also not be traced by Monday evening.

They are said to have been escorting the cash from Westlands to the Central Bank headquarters when they went missing.

Nairobi head of CID Nicholas Kamwende said they were called and informed there were guns, uniforms and vehicle abandoned in the area at about 4pm.

“We are trying to know how it happened but they say there was about Sh78 million that was on transit before they went missing. We are investigating,” said Kamwende.

The vehicle was later taken to a local police station and efforts to get the missing officers and cash were ongoing.

Officials at KK Security were in a crisis meeting amid revelations the head of CIT had been changed recently.

“The bosses are in a meeting. They will call later,” said an official at KK who asked not to be named.

Managing Director James Omwando could not respond to our calls.

Officials at KCB and CBK said the money was on transit and could not be counted as theirs at that time.

The incident is the latest in the recent past in which Cash In Transit goes missing with staff.

In 2012, more than Sh40 million on transit from Nairobi to Juba in South Sudan went missing in similar circumstances. The money $500,000 was part of cash collected at Kenya Commercial Bank, Moi Avenue, Nairobi, and was headed to South Sudan, but has been missing.

In the same year more than Sh40 million went missing after police and guards transporting the cash from a bank in Busia to Kisumu abandoned a vehicle and went missing.

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) had introduced measures aimed at addressing cases of theft of cash in transit (CIT by opening up collection centres Nakuru, Meru, Nyeri and Kisii.