Burglars the first to discover bullets

Burglars were the first to discover the ammunition that was later recovered by police from a businessman’s garage in Narok last Monday.

The gang of thieves broke into Mr Munir Ishmael’s garage on Saturday night last week, but had not targeted the bullets because they fled after stumbling on them.

It has not yet been established what they had hoped to steal or if they took anything else because none of them has been arrested.

By the break of dawn the following day, word had spread in the underground world of criminals in Narok, and it is then that the information leaked to the police intelligence network.

Senior officers in Narok Town immediately phoned their superiors in Nairobi and an order was given to seal off the area until Monday.

Police commissioner Mathew Iteere said 31,211 bullets had been recovered after supervising his officers in counting the cache.

Officers from the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU) arrested Mr Munir in connection with yet another recovery of more than 100,000 bullets after searching his house in Narok on December 7.

Were it not for the second raid, Mr Munir would probably be a free man because the court had granted him Sh1 million bail with two sureties of Sh3 million each, pending hearing of the case.

Following the turn of events in Narok, officers who had arrested him were immediately ordered to take charge of the fresh development. The first step was to rush to his Parklands home, as it was thought that he had already paid the bail.

Rushed to court

The officers traced Mr Munir to the Industrial Area Remand Prison then rushed to court and successfully sought to have the suspect released to them. The State had opposed that he be granted the bail.

He was then flown to Narok in a helicopter in the company of senior police officers, including Mr Iteere. But junior SCPU officers rushed to the scene to beef up security ahead of Mr Munir’s arrival.

Twenty six people have been questioned in connection with the bullets. Mr Dominic Mufumu, Mr John Wandeto, former AP chief armourer John Maritim, Mr Munir and his wife Nahid Tabasum have appeared in court over the first find.