Monday, September 4, 2023 –Two police firearms that had been stolen from a GSU camp in Kopsiro, Bungoma County, on August 23, have been recovered buried in the ground near a river bank.
The National Police Service NPS made the confirmation statement on Monday September 4 noon saying the main suspect in the crime had also been arrested and put under an immediate police custody.
“The main suspect arrested,” read part of the statement today.
In the daring August 23 robbery, G3 rifles one of which was loaded with 20 rounds of 7.62mm caliber disappeared mysteriously from Korngotuny GSU Camp, prompting an operation led by sleuths from the Elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau to recover them.
After the police conducted a comprehensive investigation and analysis, the detectives identified the main as Isaac wanzala.
Wanzala is a former GSU officer from Mabonge Village in Namable Busia County who was suspended from the service on disciplinary grounds.
He is believed to have sneaked into Korngotuny GSU Camp on the night the firearms disappeared and left with them undetected.
And in a raid conducted at the suspect’s home today Monday at dawn, saw the thug sneak into a nearby sugarcane plantation to evade arrest, but the officers who were determined to arrest him mounted a spirited search that lasted for hours in the vast field of sugarcane and finally smoked him out.
The suspect who appeared not to have forgotten his concealment lessons at the paramilitary unit, had utilized the available thick cover of the cane in an attempt to deceive former colleagues, but gave up when the detectives deployed what they called ‘plan B’ of their operations.
After being apprehended, he led the officers to the banks of River Sio, that snakes close to his father’s land where the firearms were recovered buried deep in the ground.
The suspect is currently in custody pending arraignment in court.