Police Constable Silas Kipkoech Kosgei, an Administration Police officer from Kigumo sub-county Murang’a county, was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of breaking into the Northern Collector Tunnel.
The officer’s arrest follows the arrest of three other suspects – Paul Maina Muniu, Peter Kilele, and Ezekiel Mwangi – on April 2, when items believed to have been stolen during the incident were recovered.
Detectives believes that the police officer is an accomplice of the other suspects linked to the break-in at the Chinese contractor’s site in Mairi area, Kigumo sub-county three weeks ago. During the break-in, property worth millions of shillings was lost.
#UPDATE|Police Constable Silas Kipkoech Kosgei of Kigumo @APSKenya HQs has been arrested by #DCI Detectives. He’s implicated in an incident of store breaking & stealing at a Chinese Construction company where properties worth millions were stolen. Suspect to be charged on Monday. pic.twitter.com/00bTdsE048— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) April 5, 2019
According to Murang’a Criminal Investigations county director Julius Rutere, Kosgey is being held at Kigumo Police Station and will be arraigned in court on Monday.
Rutere also confirmed that the officer will be charged with robbery with violence before his case is consolidated with the other suspects’ cases.
The water tunnel being funded by the World Bank at Sh6.8 billion is designed to source water from rivers Gikigie, Irati and Maragua with an aim of increasing water volumes at Ndakaini dam, the main water source for Nairobi and its environs.
Leaders and activists in Murang’a have been pushing for the construction of the Northern Collector Tunnel stopped over concerns that the project is not being implemented as designed.
However, the National Assembly’s Committee on Environment and Natural resources had earlier disputed claims that a water tunnel being constructed in Murang’a would pose far-reaching environmental effects to the county.
Earlier this year, employees of the tunnel downed their tools citing poor enumeration and failure by the Chinese company undertaking the project to provide them with protective gear.
The casual labourers said despite being employed by the company three years ago, they have never signed a contract with their employer whom they accused of firing them at will.
Led by James Ng’ang’a, the workers said their rights under the Labour Relations Act have been violated given that they work for nine hours a day and that despite working on weekends they are never given overtime pay.