Police on Sunday arrested a former General Service Unit officer suspected of stealing two guns.
The firearms were stolen from a GSU camp in Kopsiro, Bungoma county on August 23, 2023.
The G3 rifles, one of which was loaded with 20 rounds of 7.62mm caliber, disappeared mysteriously from Korngotuny GSU camp, prompting an operation led by sleuths from the elite Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau to recover them.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said on Sunday the suspect is currently suspended from the service on disciplinary grounds.
The suspect who hails from Mabonge Village in Nambale, Busia County, is believed to have sneaked into Korngotuny GSU camp on the night the firearms disappeared and left with them undetected.
A raid was conducted at the suspect’s home at dawn on Sunday, prompting him to sneak into a nearby sugarcane plantation to evade arrest.
Detectives said the suspect who appeared not to have forgotten his concealment lessons at the paramilitary unit, utilised the available thick cover of the cane in an attempt to evade capture but his theatrics were countered in equal measure by the sleuths.
"The officers who were determined to arrest him mounted a spirited search that lasted for hours in the vast field of sugarcane and finally smoked him out," DCI said in a statement.
After being apprehended, he led the officers to the banks of River Sio, which snakes close to his father’s land, where the firearms were recovered buried underground.
The suspect is currently in custody pending arraignment in court.
