Police constables Kennedy Riendo and Joseph Kakuli, both based at the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CIPU) headquarters were arrested following the ugly incident that occurred on Thursday morning, leading to a road traffic accident along Mombasa road.
Earlier at the Gateway Mall, the officers one armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and in jungle uniform and the other in civilian clothes had arrested one Naoman Mossad, an Egyptian national, on allegations that Egyptians were unwanted in the country.
They then demanded Sh200,000 to set him free. The foreigner responded that he only had Sh29,000 in his Mpesa account, and the officers escorted him to a Mpesa outlet at the Imara mall, to withdraw the cash.
Along the way, the heavily shaken Egyptian contacted the director of the Apogee warehouse group Susan Makena, who came to his aid and found them at the mall just before the transaction was completed.
She stopped the foreigner from making the withdrawal and insisted that they report the matter at the Mlolongo police station for the lawful process to take the course, contrary to the wishes of the officers.
At last, the officers reluctantly agreed to board the woman’s vehicle to Mlolongo. The one in uniform later identified as Kennedy Riendo, sat at the co-driver’s seat while his accomplice Joseph Kakuli, in civilian attire, shared the back seat with the foreigner.
However, along the way, Riendo remarked that the two were wasting their precious time and threatened to take unspecified action including killing them.
His accomplice at the back reached for his handcuffs and cuffed the foreigner’s hands before ransacking his pockets and making away with Sh100,500. Meanwhile, at the front, Riendo snatched the driver’s phone and threw it at the back seat before dangerously engaging the vehicle’s handbrake, while it was still in motion!
The already shocked driver lost control of the vehicle which turned around facing the opposite direction, causing a road traffic accident with an oncoming pickup truck that landed in a ditch.
Before Makena and the foreigner knew what was happening, the thugs in police uniforms hurriedly disembarked from the vehicle and disappeared from the scene.
Detectives and general duty police officers based at Embakasi police station responded to the incident and rescued the victims who luckily, did not suffer any injuries.
But as fate would have it, the two thugs who had since changed their clothes and were now not armed returned to the scene to clean up their mess.
Earlier as they fled the scene, they forgot to uncuff their prisoner and for fear of being busted, they crept back to collect them, only to find the scene heavily secured.
The two alluded to being in the vehicle earlier and alleged that they were on the verge of death moments ago since the driver had caused an accident with the intention of killing them. That lame explanation failed to convince the detectives who immediately arrested the two police officers based at the CIPU headquarters, for further investigations.
Seven boxes of the earlier stolen kitchenware were recovered from a vehicle in Mlolongo.
Police constables Kennedy Riendo and Joseph Kakuli, are currently in custody facing robbery with violence charges.
