Police have arrested one suspect and recovered an AK47 rifle that had been stolen from a police station in Kirinyaga.
In a statement on Monday, Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss Mohamed Amin said the firearm was stolen from Kabonge police station in Kirinyaga on February 2, 2024.
He said a male suspect aged 25 linked to the theft is being interrogated to aid ongoing investigations.
“The suspect was ambushed by the detectives who were acting on an intelligence report before the police rifle and 18 rounds of ammunition were discovered buried in a shallow hole outside his house,” Amin said.
The chief sleuth revealed that two police officers from whom the AK47 rifle and another G3 firearm were stolen are currently under investigation as detectives leave no stone unturned in efforts to recover the second rifle.
“Allegedly, the firearms were stolen after the cell sentry and report office attendant stepped out of their areas of deployment, leaving the firearms unattended at the reception area,” Amin said.
He said detectives are interrogating the suspect in custody to establish how the rifle ended up in his possession.
According to the law, it is illegal to own a gun in Kenya unless the weapon was obtained in strict adherence to provisions of the Firearms Act including issuance of a permit after meeting several pre-conditions.
It’s even a graver offence if one is found to have stolen a firearm from authorized personnel like a police officer and the punishment can be very punitive.
Stolen police firearms have on many occasions been used by crooks to stage robberies and commit murders including that of police officers themselves.
