Quickmart theft: Sh94 million suspects still on the run, police in pursuit

The two Wells Fargo staff suspected to be behind the theft of Sh94 million on transit from a Quickmart Supermarket are still on the run, with the police yet to make any progress in their efforts to arrest the duo.

The cash was to be deposited at a bank along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi.

The two suspects are said to have picked up the money from a Quickmart store and sneaked out without a police escort, giving them a chance to make away without detection.

So far, the only details known about them is their names. One is identified as Daniel Mungai, the crew commander and Anthony Nduiki, the driver of the vehicle that ferried the money.

Speaking to the Nation, Nairobi Regional Criminal Investigation Officer, Peter Njeru, said the matter had been forwarded to his office from the Lang’ata Police Division, and that his sleuths were hot on the heels of the suspected criminals.

“We still have not made progress on the matter, but we are working on a few leads. I will give an update as soon as we get information on this issue,” he said.

The Quickmart management, in a statement, indicated that the money was in Wells Fargo’s custody at the time of the incident.

“Quickmart Supermarket, as a reputable homegrown company, insures its finances against such incidents. We would like to ensure all our relevant relations that this occurrence will not disrupt our daily operations,” Quickmart’s management said.

Police records indicate that the incident happened early Monday morning and was reported at Akila Police Station in Lang’ata Sub County by Mr George Jaramba, the investigations manager at Wells Fargo.

The suspects abandoned their company’s money-transporting vehicle, an Isuzu Canter registration number KBA 517T, at Dafarm in South C in Lang'ata before making off with the money.

This was after eluding the police escort who usually accompany them when transporting valuables from one point to another.

"Later, the administrative police officers waited but did not see them and that is when they raised the alarm," the police said.

If arrested, the suspects, who are on the run, will be charged with "theft by servant" and are likely to receive a lighter sentence than if they were charged with robbery with violence.

In September 2019, men posing as police officers stole Sh72 million stashed in 13 bags from the Standard Chartered Bank and G4S in Nairobi. Police said that the impostors stole the cash in transit from the G4S headquarters along Witu road and at an ATM in Nairobi West belonging to Standard Chartered Bank.

G4S head of escort Wilfred Nyambane reported that the G4S employees had left the headquarters in two vehicles with three men they thought to be cash-in-transit officers escorting them.

However, these men turned out to be robbers and demanded all their phones and offloaded the cash to another car, make Toyota Noah, that made away with the money.

In December 2016, four G4S employees were charged with stealing Ksh580,000 from Faulu bank along Ngong road. Investigations later revealed that the alarm went off at around 2am and the backup team from the security firm went to the bank, but left without reporting anything.

Some six years before that, in February 2010, another daring theft happened when a G4S cash-in-transit ‘crew’ disappeared with over Ksh300 million in Mombasa, leaving the police escorts stranded.