On Tuesday last week, a senior police officer attached to the Investigations unit was arrested in Busia town with fake money. The Director of Criminal Investigations Officer (DCIO) serving in Bungoma County alongside two juniors were arrested while on their way for a mission to “clean” the fake 415 leaves of 100 US dollar bills.
It was a dramatic scene as the suspects were ordered by colleagues at gunpoint to lie down. The two junior officers were armed at the time of the incident, but the DCIO did not have a weapon.
Police said they had been tipped that the officers were carrying fake cash when they stopped the three who were travelling a saloon car. The suspects were arrested by colleagues who seem to have had a prior brief on the mission before striking.The officers recovered 41,500 fake US dollars (Ksh.4.3million) and Sh2, 000 fake Kenyan currency from the DCIO’s pockets.
The three were interrogated until late in the night to establish the source of the fake money. The two juniors said they were asked by their senior to accompany him to Busia and did not know his mission.
The operation was being commanded by the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti who had sent a team from Nairobi to Busia to take over the investigations into the incident.
The DCIO and his accomplices were released from police custody Wednesday morning pending the outcomes of the probe.He was told to hand over to his deputy and wait for a verdict of the investigations.This comes amidst reports of increased circulation of fake currency in the country ahead of the deadline for demonetization.
Last week, three men were arrested in Machakos for being in possession of fake 1,000 new notes of Kenyan currency amidst concern by security apparatus that fake currencies are now in circulation in major towns as syndicates shy from operating in Nairobi.
Two weeks ago, police recovered several US dollars and Euro fake papers, which were in different stages of manufacturing near Coptic Hospital along Ngong Road.Pedestrians using the feeder road spotted some of the papers splashed on the roadside and collected few before calling the police.Police from Kilimani visited the site and collected the papers before driving to the station.
They established that US$640,000 (Sh66.3 million) fake papers were ready for distribution to the market while US$2.4 million (Sh249 million) were in the final stage of formation.There were also 2,350 fake Euros and 15 litres of washing chemicals in powder form.In May this year, nine suspects were arrested in Kilimani area and fake Sh190 million (US$1.9M) recovered from them.
