Bandits in uniform: Police officers linked to illicit arms trade arrested

The arrest of a senior prisons officer, two armourers and a storeman has lifted the lid on how law enforcers, the very persons charged with the responsibility of making the country safe, are using their positions to fuel insecurity.

Following a sting operation by the Operations Support Unit (OSU), the four were seized separately as they tried to move rounds of ammunitions and a cache of firearms from Nairobi to Turkana County, which is among the counties in the North Rift experiencing insecurity fanned by easy access to illegal firearms.

Detectives now believe the arrest of the four is a breakthrough in the perennial cattle rustling and banditry challenges in the North Rift where countless lives have been lost and families displaced from their homes in a circle of violence orchestrated by armed gangs.

The four are Assistant Superintendent of Prisons Charles Lotira Ekidor in Turkana, Police Corporal Isaac Kipngetich, Police Constable Cyrus Ileli Kisamwa, an armourer at the Central Firearms Stores in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, and Samson Muriithi Mutongu, a storeman at the same facility.

Detectives believe the four run an elaborate arms and ammunition syndicate that is contributing to insecurity and violence in various parts of the country.

The infiltration of the racket was made following the arrest, on September 24, 2025, of Kipngetich who was found in possession of 1,007 rounds of ammunition of calibre 5.56mm commonly used in a wide range of assault rifles like G36, M16, M4 Carbine among others.

Kipngetich, an armourer based at Turkana Police Headquarters was nabbed on Uhuru Highway at the Kenyatta Avenue roundabout in Nairobi by OSU sleuths who intercepted him in his Toyota Passo.

On conducting a search, the officers found a sealed carton box concealed in a black backpack containing the ammunition. Kipngetich was arrested just a day after taking his annual leave that was scheduled to end on November 11.

It was established that the ammunitions were to be delivered to Lotira, the senior prisons officer based in Turkana County. On further interrogation, Kipngetich disclosed crucial information that led to the arrest of Ileli and Muriithi, both who work at the Central Firearms Stores, a crucial storage facility in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.

All purchased firearms and ammunitions for National Police Service are secured at the Central Firearms Stores along Migwani Road where dysfunctional guns are repaired. Obsolete firearms are also stored there before disposal through destruction.

As the storeman, Muriithi basically has the inventory of all the firearms allocated to Kenya Police Service, Administration Police Service , Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and specialized formations like General Service Unit (GSU) and the Anti-Stock Theft Unit among others.

Muriithi is also the custodian of ammunitions used for training at National Police College in Kiganjo, National Police College (Embakasi A Campus), National Police College (Embakasi B Campus), Magadi Field Campus, and Border Police Training Campus, among others.

Being an armourer, Ileli’s job entails maintaining and repairing malfunctioning firearms brought at the store. It is believed Ileli and Muriithi collude in stealing some of the weapons, with Kipngetich being the smuggler delivering to Lotira who then finds the market.

Their arrest follows days of detailed profiling, surveillance, and forensic investigations by the OSU team that established that Kipngetich had just received the 1,007 rounds of ammunition from Ileli and Muriithi, intended to reach Lotira.

Ileli was further found in possession of a Remington Rand Model 1911 pistol and two Ceska pistol firing pins while Muriithi had 19 assorted firearm magazines, firing pins, cleaning kits, and three spent 9mm cartridges.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) boss Mohamed Amin termed the arrest a major breakthrough in the illegal trade of firearms and ammunition.

“More suspects are on our radar, and we have cast our net wide within and outside the country,” Amin said.

Kipngetich was arraigned in court on Friday before being remanded at Capitol Hill Police Station after detectives applied to detain him for 14 days to allow investigations into what they termed a serious breach requiring more time.

In requesting for more time, investigators and prosecutors concurred that recovered bullets were suspected to be in transit for use in criminal activities such as banditry, murder, and livestock raids in Turkana and neighbouring counties.