This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
On July 6, 2020, a joint operation by the DCI and Police in Maua, Meru County led to the rescue of a security guard who had been kidnapped 14 days prior.
Three men, who had been holding the guard in a forest shrine and demanding a Sh150,000 ransom, were also apprehended in the operation.
The suspects, two of whom are brothers, were arrested in Mpinda forest, near Kiutine Market, after a week-long search by the police.
According to DCI boss Samuel Bett, the guard, Amos Kairethia, had been abducted on allegations that a motorcycle belonging to one of the kidnappers had been stolen from a residential house he guarded.
Unaware of the kidnapping, Kairethia's family had filed a 'missing person' report, but the suspects had called his uncle, demanding the ransom.
Members of the public, who had seen the suspects entering the forest, joined the police in combing the area, where the suspects were cornered as they tried to flee.
Police fired in the air to disperse the irate crowd that had started beating up the abductors, threatening to lynch them.
The suspects have been arraigned in court.
