Authorities have successfully recovered two police firearms stolen from a GSU camp in Kopsiro, Bungoma County on August 23, and have apprehended the primary suspect.
After conducting comprehensive investigations and analysis, DCI detectives identified the main suspect behind the disappearance as Isaac Wanzala.
Wanzala, a former GSU officer, currently faces suspension from the service due to disciplinary issues.
The suspect, originally from Mabonge Village in Nambale, Busia County, allegedly infiltrated the Korngotuny GSU camp on the night the firearms vanished, absconding undetected with them.
The disappearance of G3 riffles, one of which held 20 rounds of 7.62mm calibre, at Korngotuny GSU camp initiated an operation led by elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau investigators to reclaim them.
At dawn today, a raid on the suspect’s residence compelled him to seek refuge in a nearby sugarcane plantation to evade arrest.
Nonetheless, the officers, resolute in apprehending him, conducted an exhaustive search amid the expansive sugarcane field. Eventually, they successfully flushed him out.
The criminal, seemingly well-versed in concealment tactics from his time in the paramilitary unit, had taken advantage of the dense cane cover to outwit our personnel.
However, he abandoned this strategy when the detectives implemented their contingency plan.
After being apprehended, he led the officers to the banks of River Sio, which snakes close to his father’s land where the firearms were recovered and buried on the ground.
The suspect is currently in custody pending arraignment in court.
According to the Kenyan Law, any person who steals a firearm with the intention of using it in a criminal offence faces up to 14 years in prison.
Stealing ammunition, on the other hand, attracts a jail term of 10 years.
