A STORY ON HOW THIEVES BROKE INTO STATE HOUSE

According to official records, the State House is one of the most protected buildings in the country. However, in April 2013, a daring robbery took place in the President’s residence in Mombasa that showed just how far robbers would go to make millions.

Two suspects, the State House caretaker, and a General Service Unit (GSU) constable are said to have sneaked into the President’s office as well as the First Lady’s and made away with 5 pieces of decorative ivory.

Once they were apprehended, the GSU constable narrated how the caretaker looped him on the ‘deal of a lifetime’ with one of the pieces believed to have weighed 100kg.

The suspect told the police that the caretaker shared his elaborate plan with him as he needed an insider to help smuggle the loot out of the heavily guarded compound.

Police reports revealed that the 100kg ivory that was mounted in the First Lady’s office was the first to be smuggled out by the 2 under the guise of State House waste.

However, the police were soon made aware of the loot and pounced before they could sell it off. They confiscated the caretaker’s phone and attempted to nab the buyer as well.

After going through the string of texts between the buyer and the mastermind, the detectives sent out a text of their own in an attempt to set up a meeting.

“Unfortunately, the broker realised there was a difference in tone between previous messages and the new ones being sent by detectives and disappeared. The man also discarded the phone and sim card,” a police source told the media.

2 pieces of ivory stolen from the President’s office were found buried within the State House compound, with the caretaker confessing to having planned to smuggle them out on a later date.

The GSU Constable tried to distance himself from the robbery by claiming he had played along just to uncover all the players and bring them all to book.

All the missing pieces were recovered following investigations, with some found in a container bound for Asia.

The trail on what happened to the caretaker and the Constable after the recovery of stolen items soon went cold.

Cases of daring heists involving theft of items belonging to some of the most powerful people in the country are rare, but over the years, some have stood out.

In September 2012, a businessman was arraigned and charged in court after being found in possession of a Range Rover valued at Ksh18 million that was stolen from former President Daniel arap Moi.

The charge states that him and other stole the unregistered green range rover on November 9, 2008, from Cooper Motors Corporation (CMC) in Nairobi.

The businessman is then said to have sold it off to retired politician Fred Gumo who signed a statement confirming the same.

“I don’t and did not own the car. Someone wanted to sell it to me, but he had not produced all the documents,” the former Westlands MP told the court.

This was not the first time the late President had an encounter with robbers. In 1999, a daring group of thieves broke into his Kabarak home and made away with one of his most prized possessions, a golden cockerel.

According to reports, the cockerel weighed at least 20kg and was made out of pure gold. It has never been found since.

Sourced from Kenyans.co.ke