Detectives are investigating an incident where a senior police officer on leave was robbed of Sh718,000 after leaving a bank in Sondu, Kericho County.
The officer of the rank of inspector, who is attached to the General Service Unit, was on leave when he was attacked and robbed of the cash on Friday afternoon.
He told police at Sondu Police Station he had withdrawn the cash from a bank in Sondu Town and was taking the same to pay sugarcane farmers.
He is an official of a local cooperative that had facilitated the payment of the farmers for the sugarcane supplied.
He told police he had left a bank in Sondu and hopped onto a motorcycle with the cash in a bag headed for the Maruna area when he and the rider were attacked.
This is after he had a late lunch in the town. It is suspected the gang had been trailing him from the bank.
On their way at Samisbay, a salon car blocked the rider, and three armed men alighted and grabbed the bag at gunpoint.
The officer was not armed at that point.
The bag also had other personal effects. The gang sped off towards Kisumu as the rider chased it in vain.
The gang later dropped two mobile phones that were in the bag.
The cop said he sustained injuries in the right elbow, back, and knees during the drama and was treated at a local clinic and discharged.
Police say they are hunting for the gang behind the incident.
The team plans to visit the bank where the officer withdrew the cash and interrogate staff there as part of the probe into the attack.
Such incidents have been common of late, where people are trailed and robbed of cash after leaving banks.
Two weeks ago, a man was trailed and robbed of Sh7 million in Nairobi moments after he had left a bank.
Another victim was last week trailed and blocked on Waiyaki Way by men dressed as traffic cops before being robbed of an unknown amount of money after he had left a bank.
Earlier on,
another man was robbed of a nearby Sh1 million in Machakos moments after he had
left a bank.
Past investigations have linked such incidents to rogue bank staff who leak information to thugs about transactions of their clients.
Investigations have also been linked to prior information from the clients’ side to the attacks. Other thugs stay in banks pretending to be customers with an aim of noticing those withdrawing money for attacks, police say.
