The police suspect that those involved in the Friday Sh1.5 million heist at the Mutune branch of Itoleka Financial Services Association bank were insiders.
Kitui Central sub-county police commander Abduba Waqo said their assessment of the scene of crime indicated that the theft was an inside job. Five of the bank’s employees were arrested on Saturday.
The thieves smashed the wall of one of the offices of the sacco at Mutune market in the outskirts of Kitui town to access the room where the money was kept.
“We have arrested a cashier who was found with Sh260,000 in and a credit officer who was found with Sh100,000. It was not immediately clear how the money came into their possession and we took them in for interrogation,” Waqo said.
The commander said, “The room where the gaping hole was smashed open was not the one where the money was kept. The lock to the room where the money was stolen was not tampered with.”
The police want to establish why the stolen money was kept in a cabinet in a cashier’s office when there was a tamper-proof safe. He said the money in the safe was intact because it could not be broken into.
Senior Kitui principal magistrate Johnson Munguti freed the suspects - Faith Mwikali, Amos Nzioki, Nancy Safari, Kisama Nguta and Tracy Kalali - on Sh75,000 bond each on Monday.
