Family of Thieves: Police Arrest A Grandmother, 2 Sisters, A Couple Ksh 72 Million Heist

On 5^th of September 2019, the Standard Chartered Bank Automated Teller (ATM) lost 72 million shillings at Nairobi West in a manner that nobody had seen coming.

The loss of the 72 million shillings became popular on social media platforms as the money heist and would give detectives sleepless nights as the pressure to recover the money heightened on them.

Police officers recovered empty boxes that carried the money in a forest; a car used in the heist had been painted black in a Kikuyu town garage leading to more arrests.

On 7^th September, two police officers were arrested with 7 million shillings in Kisii and Homa Bay counties respectively.

On 12^th September, two suspects, including an elderly woman were arrested with over 2 million shillings.

On 26^th September, four other suspects were arrested and a vehicle believed to have been bought using the stolen money was recovered by Detectives from the Special Crimes Prevention Unit (SCPU).

Among those in custody are Police Constable Simon Gichuhi Karuku and his wife AP Caroline Njeri Waithira in Thogoto, Kiambu County who was arrested on 26^th September 2019.

Karuku’s sister, Eunice Wangari Karuku, who is a KDF officer based at the Kahawa Barracks, believed to have been handed the stolen money. Wangari was guarding a nearby Equity bank ATM in the same Nairobi West area.

Wangari Karuku directed police to pick the money from their other sister Florence Wanjiru Karuku, who is also an AP officer and was handed by Wangari. A Toyota Mark X car registration number KBX 779R, suspected to have been bought with the stolen money was recovered from Wangari.

Wanjiru Karuku told the police that as soon as she got the bag of the stole with money, she gave it to her boyfriend, James Macharia, who escaped with the stolen money to an unknown place.

The arrest of the couple and their two sisters’ came days after detectives had arrested an elderly woman, Mary Kyalo 60 years of age, a man identified as John Kamau Mulei, brother to Bernard Mwendwa, a G4S employee who had earlier been arrested in connection with the same theft.

Kamau led detectives to his grandmother’s house, Mary Kyalo, in Machakos County where they recovered 2, 389,000 shillings. His grandmother, Mary Kyalo, 60, was also arrested.

It had been believed that the heist had been carried out by fake police officers but it is turning out that the crime was an inside job that incorporated police officers and security guards who had been hired to escort the money to a Standard Chartered bank ATM in Nairobi West.