Five charged with Sh28 million theft at Kayole Equity Bank

New safes arrive at Equity Bank Kayole Branch after burglars drilled their way into the facility and made away with Sh28 million, November 6, 2016. /FILE
New safes arrive at Equity Bank Kayole Branch after burglars drilled their way into the facility and made away with Sh28 million, November 6, 2016. /FILE

Five people were on Monday charged with the theft of Sh28 million from Equity Bank Kayole branch.

James Kamau, Jonah Ngei, Simon Muhoro, Zablon Motari and Dominic Nyaribo have been accused of breaking into the bank and stealing a sum of Sh28,133,242.

They are said to have committed the offence on November 5 and 6.

Ngei and Motari each faced an additional charge of failing to use all means reasonable to prevent the offence.

Motari worked as a G4S guard at the bank, while Ngei was the signaler at Wells Fargo security head office,

responsible for monitoring and reporting major alarms to the police and Equity Bank management.

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Nyaribo is also charged with dishonestly retaining Sh490,000 believed to have been stolen from the bank.

He was found with the cash on November 21 at Githurai 45 in Kasarani.

The prosecution said Nyaribo had a new television in his house believed to have been bought with the stolen cash.

Police said investigations revealed the burglars gained entry to the bank "in a well-schemed and perfectly executed theft".

They drilled a hole in the bank's wall without the knowledge of the Wells Fargo security guards manning the premises.

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The guards reportedly did not know of the incident until 11am the next day when detectives from Kayole visited the scene.

"Police, accompanied by the bank manager, broke the door into the bank only to find that a section of the wall adjacent to the bank's rear wall had been partly demolished," the prosecution said.

Gliders, a gas cylinder, mallets and chisels were found at the bank's hall next to the two safes that were shattered.

Police added that they found the bank's CCTV disabled and the alarm system deactivated.

The five denied the charges before senior principal magistrate Eveline Olwande who remanded Kamau at industrial area prison as he faced a similar charge in a Milimani court.

The rest were released on a cash bail of Sh2 million each and a surety of similar amount each.

The case will be mentioned on November 17.

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