Gangsters brake into factory and steal coffee in Murang’a

Murang’a

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

KNA by Bernard Munyao

A Murang’a coffee factory on Monday night lost more than 20 sacks of coffee when a gang of thieves broke into the facility.

Reports from police indicated the thieves who accessed Karurumo factory in Murang’a south sub county first switched off the CCTV before they embarked to package coffee which was in drying beds.

Murang’a South Sub county police commander Ms Jane Nyakiruma said the gang arrived at the factory around 2am and broke into the facility.

She said police suspect the robbery was an inside job saying the management of the factory took a long time before reporting to the authorities.

The stolen coffee, Nyakiruma said, was of grade PP1 as the thieves left coffee of the lower grades in the drying beds.

The theft comes when the season of harvesting of coffee is coming to an end with farmers expressing fears of losing earnings from their produce due to theft incidents.

“We are investigating the incident as we call upon members of the public to volunteer information that can help in the recovery of the stolen parchment coffee.

“Already three watchmen who were on duty are under police custody to assist in the investigations as members of the factory management committee expected to record their statement with the police,” said Nyakiruma.

The theft, which was the first to be reported in this year, happened five years after officials of cooperative societies were asked to request for police officers to guard their factories once harvesting starts.

The theft, Nyakiruma said, is a big loss to farmers as they will miss payment of the produce delivered to the factory saying security will be heightened in all local coffee factories to safeguard the produce of farmers.

“We are warning coffee factory management who are thinking of conspiring to have farmers’ produce stolen. The surety team is committed to apprehend all those perpetuating the theft at Kururumo factory,” she added.

A local coffee farmer, Joseph Kamande stressed that the theft needs to be investigated and those behind it made to face the law wondering why the gang only loaded in sacks PP1 grade leaving behind the other grades in the drying beds.

“Harvesting season of coffee commenced early in April and the gang struck when we were closing the season,” said Kamande.

Murang’a County has 144 coffee factories which are affiliated to 38 cooperative societies.

In the recent past, the county has been producing at average of about 25 million kilos of coffee with efforts by the county government targeting to attain more than 35 million kilos annually.

The county administration had announced it will use Sh800 million within a period of five years to revamp the coffee sector which has not been performing well.

Courtesy ; K. N. A