Two robbery syndicate leaders and their accomplices were this morning arrested after being found in possession of musical instruments stolen from a church last night at Mutumbe in Kiang’ondu location, Tharaka Nithi County.
According to witnesses, the Tuesday night robbery was discovered by one of the early morning worshippers of Mutube Baptist Church, who together with the church caretaker discovered that musical instruments had been stolen by robbers who had accessed the place of worship through its roof.
Word about the robbery would soon spread to the residents and other church worshippers who converged at the church and set up a search mission, navigating through visible footsteps following a heavy downpour that night.
The footsteps led the congregants and other members of the public to a rental house in Mutube market, but the occupants were nowhere to be seen prompting them to inquire for more details from the neighbours, where a next-door neighbour recounted hearing numerous movements from the said house that night.
Search operations for the occupants of the house received a big boost after a tip from one of the residents that they had been seen in one of the local bars identified as “Gaza”.
The angry yet motivated residents quickly rushed to the bar where the two robbery leaders were nubbed keeping watch over the stolen musical instruments which included three speakers, a mixer, an amplifier, an equalizer, guitars and other clerical attires and instruments.
It took the intervention of the church pastor Frankline Mutwiri to report the matter at Chuka Police Station and accompany the officers to the scene, saving the suspects from the angry and charged crowd who had already threatened to lynch them.
Speaking to the media after the incident, one of the church congregants and Tharaka Nithi BodaBoda Association Chairman Willis Mugambi noted with concern that the rising number of theft cases witnessed in the area, saying that over five motorbikes had been reported missing since the robbers, who were new in the area were first seen.
According to Mugambi, upon interrogation of the robbers, it was discovered that the order for the musical instruments had been made by the Gaza bar owner, where the instruments worth over KShs 400,000 were nubbed.
He also gave the commitment to ensure the motorbikes involved in the robbery have been surrendered to the police and their owners brought to book.
Security agencies have now been called upon to ensure security is heightened in the area, with rampant cases of church and shop robberies witnessed mostly at night when there is heavy downpour.
