Four suspects were arrested as they sold rifles to undercover police officers in Maua Town, Meru County.
Two AK47 rifles with two bullets were recovered from them in the Thursday, December 5 afternoon operation, police said.
Detectives posing as buyers of the arms lured the four and engaged in a negotiation.
The suspects, according to police, arrived aboard a motorcycle with the arms concealed in a miraa bag.
They had agreed to meet at the Maili Tatu area.
After a negotiation in which the buyers were to give Sh300,000 for the weapons, the supposed-to-be buyers turned out to be undercover police officers.
They ordered the four to lie down and surrender before they were handcuffed and taken to custody ahead of planned arraignment.
Police said the four will be produced in court for an application to detain them pending further probe into their alleged crime in the area.
The area has been facing a rise in crime in general prompting an outcry and a probe into the gang behind the same.
Gunmen have been attacking and robbing locals which prompted police to launch the probe and subsequent operation and recovery.
More operations are planned in the area following concerns about the rise in crime in general, police said.
The recovery of the weapons came as another team in Matungu, Kakamega County shot and killed two suspects before recovering an AK47 rifle loaded with 15 bullets.
Police believe the two are part of a gang that has been terrorizing locals in the past months.
The area has been experiencing a rise in crime incidents in the past months prompting the operation.
There has been an upsurge of brutal murder cases and robberies between May to November 2024 in the area where more than seven victims have been murdered and many others robbed and maimed leading to public outcry.
Having obtained intelligence leads to the suspect's hideout at a rented house
in Matungu village, the operators comprising the Directorate of Criminal
Investigations (DCI's) Operation Action Team and Crime Research and
Intelligence Bureau cordoned the rental unit, ordering the suspects to step out
and surrender.
In defiance, the gun-hardened duo opted for a battle of guns, only to be
neutralized at the sound of cocking the rifle from inside the house in the
Thursday, December 5 incident.
From the house of the felled men who are yet to be identified, the rifle loaded
with 15 rounds of live ammunition and a Bajaj motorcycle were found.
Police in the area believe that the recovered motorcycle belongs to a fellow police officer who is in a coma at a Kakamega hospital, after he was accosted by a machete-wielding gang on the night of November 12, 2024, in Butere township.
A major operation is planned in various mapped areas to tame crime in general, police say.
