Burglars steal 7 computers from Nyandarua government offices

Nyandarua County Commissioner Samuel Kimiti in a past photo. On the night of November 29, 2017, criminals broke into three government offices located at the county commissioner's compound and stole computers. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The burglars stole five computers, two laptops, and other equipment.
  • They opened one office with a key and broke the locks on the other two to gain access.

Daring criminals on Wednesday night broke into three government offices located at the Nyandarua County Commissioner’s compound and stole five computers, two laptops, and other equipment.

The county commissioner was on Thursday morning at pains to explain how the burglary took place in a building adjacent to his office and next to Governor Francis Kimemia’s office.

BURGLARY

This is a second burglary targeting government offices at the headquarters where criminals have been stealing computers.

During the Wednesday night theft at the Ministry of Planning offices and Documentation Centre, the burglars used a key to open one of the offices then used crude weapons to break in two others.

They raided offices of the National Land Commission (NLC), Social Services, and Agricultural Sector Development Support Programme (ASDSP).

At ASDPS, the criminals broke the padlocks to the main door to access the secretary’s office, then broke two other doors leading to the offices of senior management where they stole two computers and laptops, a projector and other office equipment.

Two other computers were stolen from the NLC offices and one at the social development offices.

INSIDE JOB?

County Commissioner Samuel Kimiti said he could not rule out an inside job, saying comprehensive investigations have begun.

“No ordinary thief takes such a big risk to raid a protected area. They knew what they wanted and where to get it. We want to know what information was on those computers and who were the custodians,” said the county commissioner.

Administration Police officers guarding the premises that night would also be investigated, the county commissioner said.

PRIOR INFORMATION

A detective at the scene said: “We are trying to understand how the items left the compound. Some county government staff work past midnight to meet their deadlines. We also know that the governor works very late at night. We do not know how the thieves learned that there was no staff at the county offices last night.”

On August 28, a similar theft was staged at the Ministry of Education county headquarters in which computers with procurement data were stolen, a day after they were moved from the county commissioner’s offices where the department had been operating from. 

The county commissioner convened an urgent security meeting to discuss the theft.