A man who allegedly colluded with an administration police officer and a Kenya Prisons Service office to rob two businessmen of $21,000 (Sh2,856,000) while claiming to be detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been charged with robbery with violence contrary to section 296 (2) of the penal code.
Mr Titus Marangu alias Samuel Waweru Nderitu is accused of robbing Mohammed Sheikh and Shafey Omar Ahmed of the money between Lalucia apartment in Kileleshwa where they were arrested and Kiambu road near DCI headquarters in Nairobi where they were abandoned after the alleged robbery on April 9, 2023.
Mr Marangu is accused of committing the offence jointly with others, including Administration Police Service officer Geoffrey Kyalo Mwangangi attached to Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CIPU) at Nyayo House and a Kenya Prisons Service officer based at the Langata Women’s Prison who have also been charged with the same offence.
The suspect and his accomplices are said to have arrested the two businessmen at an apartment in Kileleshwa where they had been invited for a business deal by a man suspected to be Mr Marangu.
Mr Marangu is accused of threatening to use actual violence against the complainants during the alleged robbery.
The accused person is also facing additional charges of forgery, impersonation and possession of government stores.
In the forgery case, Mr Marangu is accused of forging a National Police Service (NPS) Certificate of Appointment (COA) while in the impersonation charge, he is accused of presenting himself as a person employed by the public service as a police officer in the rank of police constable with intent to defraud.
The suspect was charged with possession of government stores after he was allegedly found with a pair of handcuffs belonging to the NPS when he was arrested in Ridgeways area along Kiambu Road in Nairobi on August 11.
The two complainants, who run a forex exchange bureau in Eastleigh, were approached by a businessman believed to be Mr Marangu with an offer of currency exchange.
They met him in Nairobi city centre where he informed them that he had colleagues who would facilitate the deal.
Mr Marangu who is being sought by the DCI as an accomplice in the case, requested Mr Sheikh and Ahmed to meet him at a house in Kileleshwa.
On arrival, the two businessmen were taken to a room upstairs where they were informed the deal would take place. They found two other men in the room.
The two traders were requested to take out the cash they had in dollars in readiness for the exchange.
However, immediately after they presented their money, four other men stormed the room and introduced themselves as officers from DCI headquarters and ordered Mr Sheikh and Mr Ahmed to surrender.
The four men handcuffed the two businessmen and robbed them of the money and threatened to take them to the DCI headquarters.
Mr Sheikh and Mr Ahmed were escorted out of the apartment and into two cars before they were driven to the DCI headquarters.
After arrival at the main gate, the suspects stopped for a while then proceeded to a nearby restaurant where the purported DCI officers and their four accomplices disappeared with the money.
After they were robbed, the complainants reported the matter to the police and Starehe DCI officers proceeded to the scene along Kiambu road where they arrested Mr Mwangangi.
He identified himself as an officer of the APS and confirmed to have been in the company of suspects who disappeared.
The officer led the detectives to a restaurant where a car he was using in the alleged robbery was recovered. Upon a search, he was found in possession of car keys and cash safe box keys in his pockets.
The detectives opened the car and found the cash safe box which they opened and found US dollars.
The DCI officers later visited the apartment and recovered the CCTV footage that captured the vehicles used by the suspects who abducted the two businessmen before they were robbed.
The investigators later identified one of Mr Mwangangi’s accomplices as a prison officer and traced him later to his work station. He has also been charged and released on bond pending trial.
Mr Mwangangi was charged before Principal Magistrate Lewis Gatheru of Makadara Law Courts where he denied the charges. He was released on a bond of Sh300,000. Hearing of the case starts on October 17, 2023.
Mr Marangu also denied the charges after he was arraigned before Senior Principal magistrate Gerald Mutiso of the Makadara Law Courts and sought for lenient bail and bond terms.
He was released on a bond of Sh500, 000 with two sureties of a similar amount.
The case will be mentioned on September 11, 2023, for a pretrial.
