Police Officer Among Five Lynched in Kericho

One of the five men who were lynched by an angry mob in Koitaburot, Soin Sigowet after robbing a Sacco treasurer of Sh1.1 million moments after he withdrew from a bank in Muhoroni was a serving police officer.

An identification card found on the body of one of the victims showed he was Jayson Kamau of Koru police station.

Police also recovered a pair of handcuffs belonging to the police.

Also recovered was a police pocket phone. Police said the incident was unfortunate and isolated.
Police said the gang trailed the victim before ambushing and abducting him.

They then tried to flee using the West Valley Sugar Road in Kericho County on February 17, 2026.
He raised an alarm alerting a mob including boda boda riders that joined the hunt on the attackers.

Attempts by the gang to flee after staging the robbery were thwarted as residents who got wind of the situation swung into action.
They stoned them to death.

The police said they did not know the whereabouts of the cash that was stolen. The car that the five suspects were using was vandalized in the drama and set on fire.

Police officers who arrived at the scene a little too late recovered a toy pistol and fake vehicle registration plates, items believed to have been used by the robbers.

Police said the gang had been under surveillance for weeks.
They seemed to have had prior information on the transaction before they struck.

The sub-county Police Commander, Soin Sigowet Lawrence Kisini confirmed the incident and said they are investigating it.

He said they are investigating how the officer was found in the company of the suspects.
The bodies were moved to the mortuary pending an identification and autopsy, police said.

Police also discouraged mob lynching and advocated suspects to be surrendered to authorities for action.
This is the latest such incident to happen where customers are attacked and robbed after leaving banks.

It is also the latest incident on mob lynching amid efforts to address the trend.
A number of customers have lost money to suspected thugs after leaving banks.

The incidents are under probe for now and most of them remain unsolved.
For instance, police are still pursuing suspected thugs who wore police uniforms while robbing an employee of Sh1.9 million moments after leaving a bank in Westlands, Nairobi.

The victim, who is an employee of MFI along Muthangari Drive as a finance manager, had been to Westlands DTB Bank and withdrew the cash.
He then walked to his car and set off to his offices.

But before arriving at the offices on February 11, 2026 11 am, a car blocked his way. Two men wearing traffic police uniforms jumped out and grabbed the cash before driving off.

Such incidents have been on the rise in various places. Police investigations show some of them happen after suspects hang in banking halls and monitor transactions before stalking and attacking their victims.

In another incident, former Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture Technology Vice Chancellor Prof Ratemo Michieka  lost Sh950,000 to suspected thieves in the Runda area, Nairobi.

The incident is said to have happened moments after he left the bank.
The professor told police he had been to Warwick Center in Gigiri on February 4 at 2 pm and withdrew the cash for use to pay for works at a construction site in Runda.

He told police he was in the company of a manager at the site and they drove from the bank to the site and parked his car about 15 meters away.
He did not know the thieves were trailing him.

He said he had packed the cash in a bag and left the same in the car, he said.
After walking to inspect the site, he heard a bang and on checking he realized his car had been broken into and the gang which had trailed him using a car had vanished.

The gang is believed to have been at the banking hall or had prior information on the cash transactions, police said.

The professor later confronted the bank officials demanding an explanation of how the incident happened.
He protested the incident saying he suspected the thieves knew the transactions from the bank.