Four suspects held over robbery of Sh15 million in demonetisation drama

Four suspects have been arrested in connection with a robbery incident in which a money dealer was robbed of Sh15 million in Upper Hill area, Nairobi.

One suspect was arrested in Nairobi and three others in Mombasa. The dealer was September 21 approached in Eastleigh and told a politician wanted to exchange old Sh1,000 to US dollars.

He packed the money and headed to a restaurant in Upper Hill where he was to meet the said politician for a better exchange rate only to be attacked and robbed the money.

The suspects then escaped to Mombasa where they were traced and arrested yesterday. They were produced in court and police were allowed to hold them for eight days to complete their investigations.

The incident happened during the rush to the September 30 deadline for the demonetization announced by Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on June 1.

The money dealer reported to Capitol Hill police station, Nairobi, that a man known to him approached him and declared a politician had Sh15 million in the old currency and wanted the same to be changed to US dollars at “a good rate”.

The victim runs a foreign exchange bureau in Eastleigh. He told police that he packed 150,000 US dollars and headed for the supposed destination.

The Government introduced new currency with plans for withdrawing all old currency from circulation by October 1, 2019. 

Uganda and Tanzania stopped the use of the Kenyan currency in an effort to shield its banks from being used to launder stolen money back into Kenya.

CBK announced on Madaraka Day it was withdrawing the old notes in a bid to counter counterfeits, corruption and money laundering.

During the demonetization period, individuals exchanging less than Sh1 million of the old notes and non-account holders were instructed to exchange them through the currency centres, CBK branches and commercial banks.

Bank customers and non-account holders having an excess of Sh5 million are required to get CBK’s approval.

The old generation banknotes became worthless papers from October 1, 2019. There have been cases where fraudsters have been making fake notes to gain during the demonetization period.

To beat the threat, banks and other handlers were asked to be cautious when handling the new notes.