Three gunmen raid church office and take off with Sh1m

Three armed gangsters on raided a church in Nyeri town and walked away with over Sh1 million.

According to Africa Independent Pentecostal Church of Africa Bishop Bernard Muthoga, the three men walked into the church headquarters at around 1pm and asked the secretary and youth coordinator to cooperate and hand over the money.

“They had pistols and threatened to kill them, so they had no choice but to hand the money to the gang,” he said.

As they left the church, the gangsters met one of the church officials, who raised the alarm.

“When they were making their escape, they came face to face with a church official who was coming to the office and they fired their guns in the air to scare him away, and then took off,” said Bishop Muthoga.

The three witnesses reported the raid to the police.

Muthoga explained that the money had been collected from local parishes and was meant to pay the salaries of the staff.

“The money had been brought to the church on Monday and was to be used to pay the staff and for operations. We usually do not keep such large sums of money in the office. We were about to pay the salaries,” he said.

County Criminal Investigations Officer Charles Mutua said police had received the report and were investigating the matter.

“We have received reports of the incident that occurred at a local church and we are carrying out investigations into the robbery,” he said.