Dominic Wabala and Casper Waithaka
7 November 2009
Nairobi — Security company G4S is offering a Sh1.2 million reward for information leading to the recovery of Sh24 million stolen in a heist on Friday.
The offer was announced by G4S' sales and marketing director Betty Keitany-Koech on Saturday. It has emerged that a day before the incident, the Central Bank, police and security firms offering cash-in-transit services held a day-long meeting to discuss alternative ways of transporting money.
The driver and Administration Police officer who escaped with the money had by yesterday evening not been traced. Detectives investigating the heist say the two might have been aware that the cash-in-transit van, like the one at Nairobi's Yaya Centre heist two months ago, did not have any tracking device.
Like in the Yaya Centre case, the Friday afternoon incident only came to light when a Ngara resident alerted the company about an abandoned van. By Saturday afternoon, both the AP and G4S were reviewing systems, operations and supervision of all cash-in-transit services.
G4S said it will introduce double supervision measures and review its risk process to identify loopholes to avoid similar heists. "It is an unfortunate situation but with over 200 vehicles each making several trips in a day, this is a one-off case," Ms Koech said.
Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia told the Sunday Nation the ministry was strengthening the system used in the security of cash-in-transit following Friday's heist.
Very dangerous
Security vans will no longer be allowed to pick up the officers from their homes. "It is very dangerous when they pick up the officers from their homes and what they did on Friday appears to have been a conspiracy. The APs should have been picked up from their camp at Mbagathi," Mr Kimemia said on the phone.
Security firms have for five years resisted a move by the Central Bank to introduce the "smoke and dye" system of transporting large sums of money. Under the system, a canister is placed in the cash box and activated to release colour that defaces the notes in case of an attack on the van. Security firms have said this would make the job expensive.
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