US officer’s bag ‘stolen’ at police security event

The bag containing the documents of a top American sheriff was stolen from a city hotel where he had been invited for the Police Station Visitors’ Week, the event organisers said on Tuesday.

The Usalama Reforms Forum (URF) explained that they had invited Mr James Lopez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to assess the services provided by the police in Kenya.

URF chief executive Philip Onguje on Tuesday said that while at the hotel, the bag was stolen in one of the incidents that brought to the fore security lapses even when top security chiefs, including the Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo, attend events.

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Mr Lopez is the commander of one of the 13 divisions of the County Sheriff Department -East Patrol Division.

The bag was stolen by a man who later abandoned it at Hotel Arizona on Duruma Road — about 40 metres from the Kampala Coach offices -after taking the valuables, and only leaving a medal, car keys, two military stars and a notebook.

According to the CCTV footage seen by the police, the man walked into the hotel at 9.46am and left two minutes later.

He wrote a note and left it on top of the bag.

Out of the 19 stations visited during the Visitors Week, Parklands police station was ranked the best followed by Buru Buru and Bungoma stations.