Police in Mombasa are conducting an investigation into a robbery incident where two foreign visitors lost valuable electronics and cash from their hotel room in Shanzu area.
The foreigners, one from the UK but working in the Philippines, and a Canadian working in Thailand, said they were in Mombasa for a training session that kicked off between September 11 to 16.
On the evening of September 13, they left their room, only to return and discover that their belongings had disappeared.
They reported that when they departed their room on the evening of the incident, it had been securely locked. However, upon their return, they found that the lock had been forcibly broken.
“On that day evening, Wednesday 13, we attended the training session and decided to go swimming for a few minutes at 5.15 pm. When we went back to our room we found the door broken into and the safety box missing,” they said as quoted by the Star.
The foreigners said they lost a camera, two mobile phones, two laptops, and a safe box containing crucial travel documents such as passports, along with an amount of 900,000 dollars, which is equivalent to 132.4 million Kenyan shillings.
They reported the matter at the Bamburi Police Station where it was booked under OB Number C/ORG/1/9/VOL11/016/2023.
“This was my fourth trip to Kenya and I have never experienced such an incident before.”
“The same evening sometime after the incident happened, we were told that a woman who was on a motorcycle and wearing a Buibui returned our passports but no one identified her, may the thieves just thought we would be stranded that is why they brought the documents back, their interest was the money and electronics,” one foreigner said.
He stated that the missing documents were surrendered to the hotel management by a staff member who claimed they had been left at the hotel’s entrance.
After reviewing the CCTV footage, it was revealed that two individuals had forcibly entered the room and left with the valuables.
“Apparently these people had checked in a day before and checked out the same evening of the incident but we were told by management that they had used the wrong identification, so they were observing our movements.”
Joseph Mutungi, the OCPD (Officer Commanding Police Division) of Kisauni sub-county, said the investigation is currently underway.
