Five procurement officers in the Nyandarua finance department are being investigated over burglary in which three desktop computers with vital procurement information were stolen.
The theft took place on Sunday night.
Another five officers from the education department have been summoned to assist with the investigations.
The 10 employees have recorded statements.
Eight university students, who worked at the finance office as interns, will also be summoned.
The interns are said to have been involved in handling the data that was stored on the computers.
Yesterday, King’ori Wanyeki, the director of procurement, could not shed light.
“I can’t talk to you now. I’m with police recording a statement,” he said.
But Nyandarua Central police boss Wilson Kosgei said, “We’ve summoned 10 people, whose statements have been recorded.”
He said the computers were stolen from the education department’s boardroom, where officers from the procurement office were housed after they said their office, yet “they had a lot of work”.
Kosgei said the offices — near Ol Kalou quarry and about a kilometre from Ol Kalou town — were left intact on Friday evening. On Saturday, procurement officers reported for duty and left at 1pm.
On Monday morning, an officer at the education department reported there had been a break in. The thieves also broke into the department’s kitchen and stole a gas cylinder.
Kosgei said the robbers had a clear target as “there are very many offices under the same roof with a lot of property, including computers”, yet they took only the three.
In the boardroom, there were other new computers, which were yet to be installed. They were not stolen.
“We suspect they were only interested in the information contained in the three computers. We shall narrow our investigations to the procurement officers. Even a layman can tell why the other computers were not stolen,” Kosgei said.
“If you look at it very keenly, you realise there are people who want to destroy vital information from the finance ministry.”
Kosgei said once the officers complete recording statements, the matter will be handed over to Nyandarua Central DCI for thorough investigations.
“The scene-of-crime officers have also been called to see if they can trace the criminals,” he said.
He added that offices should have round-the-clock security given that they house property worth millions of shillings.
The education department has not bought security services for the secluded offices. They also have no CCTV cameras to monitor movements of staff, visitors or any other parties.
Kosgei said some Administration Police officers are accommodated in an extension at the offices, “but it’s not clear whether they are supposed to guard the facility.
“There’s no understanding between the AP commander and the education department, where the officers have been attached.”