KENYA COMPUTER CPUs STOLEN http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143960749

Gangsters stole the Nairobi City Council mace, the deputy mayor’s chain and guns all valued at Sh10 million.

And to gain access to the safe in which the valuables were kept, the gang went past a guarded gate and two metal doors and spent at least four hours struggling to open the safes.

The six gunmen, who were dressed in police uniform, broke into the ground-floor strong room of City Hall where they stole the mace and chain, but missed Sh20 million in a safe they could not cut open.

The gold, ivory and metal mace is the council’s symbol of legislative authority and City Hall cannot conduct official meetings without its illustrative presence in the chamber.

The gang that worked its way with mysterious impunity, took about four hours to break open the safe in which the items were found plus Sh198,000.

It would appear that they abandoned their mission to break into the other safe when dawn broke. There are two safes in the strong room, where all the council cash and other valuables are usually kept.

From the same floor, which houses the main cash office, they also stole computer hardware that contained vital information of the council’s revenue records.

Police said it was still a mystery how the thugs, reported to have been six, managed to enter via a guarded gate, break a main metal door, another inner metal door into the strong room and proceed to work on the safes for hours.

Police said four of the thugs who were wearing Administration Police uniforms broke into the council’s strong room at about 2 am and stole the property, after a long struggle to break the safes.

The gang had lured four unarmed council guards who were on duty into a trap in the basement where they tied up them before proceeding to steal.

Police said it was puzzling how City Hall, a key Nairobi landmark does not have armed guards. Their colleagues who were reporting for duty found the unarmed guards in the basement at about 6 am.

They said the gang went to the main gates of the building on foot and called them, claiming they were officers from the Central Police Station.

The gang told the guards on duty that they were responding to a robbery incident that had already been reported to them from City Hall.

"They told us that someone had called from our offices to report the robbery before we let them in. We thought they were policemen because some of them were in uniform and had guns," said one of the guards.

Once inside the compound, the thugs slapped and boxed the guards before they tied them up using ropes and locked them in room in the basement. .

The affected safe is locked with a three-key combination, which, some guards said, is connected to an alarm at the Central Police Station that is supposed to go off if touched at odd hours.
It is this that led to some skeptics at the scene to see an inside hand in the theft.

Town Clerk John Gakuo and Mayor Dick Wathika said the thugs proceeded to the revenue offices where they vandalised computers and escaped with the CPUs.

As they were going on with their operations, a car drove into the compound into which they loaded the property before escaping.

Wathika called the burglary a setback because of uncertainties and controversies surrounding the council’s insurance policy.

"We are messed up because the issue of insurance and the council is in court and there are uncertainties," he said.

The two officials accompanied by top council fathers addressed journalists at the Mayor’s Parlour to assure city residents that operations will not be affected. They also announced that they would overhaul the current security set up at City Hall.

Police led by the Central CID boss, Mr Nyale Munga, visited the scene and questioned the guards before leaving. Munga said investigations were on-going.

The council is yet to replace the mayor’s chain that was stolen in mysterious circumstances in June, 2001.

Then Local Government Assistant Minister Betty Tett told Parliament in 2003 that the chain had not been recovered. There were reports that the chain had been traced to Paris.

Efforts by the council to replace the chain got into trouble after investigators accused former Mayor Dick Waweru and former town Clerk Godfrey Mate of attempting to defraud the council of Sh10 million given to them to shop for a new one.

The two are facing a case in court and were put on their defence. The prosecution had indicated that instead of purchasing the chain from the United Kingdom the two ended up starting a business venture there.

Among witnesses who testified during the hearing was Wathika who recounted to the court how the council convened a meeting for the purchase of the chain in question but it was never bought.

Two years ago, a fire razed the first floor of City Hall burning vital records of revenue. The damage was said to have taken away irreplaceable records.

Yesterday’s burglary was the second in a year to be reported at the council. An unknown number of thugs broke into the City Inspectorate’s offices and those of the Education Department and stole guns and other valuables.

No arrest has been made since the incident was reported over a year ago.