Police in Kitui County have arrested five individuals, including an active police officer, for allegedly impersonating Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers.

The quintet, comprising four men and a woman, were apprehended while attempting to extort the County's Director of Revenue Collection.

They are; Corporal Anne Mutheu, a 46-year-old officer attached to Muthangari Police Station, Sheddy Kakai (37), Permelus Kasama (48), Joseph Musembi (34), and David Bembe (33).

The suspects reportedly stormed the Director's office under the pretence of conducting a crackdown targeting corrupt county officials. They then took the director to her residence, alleging that she had stashed large sums of looted county funds at the residency.

Suspicious of the five, the Director alerted police who soon after arrived at the scene and apprehended the suspects.

According to Kitui Central Police OCPD Peter Karanja, when officers interrogated the suspects they found them in possession of EACC staff badges, all bearing the title "CEO".

"We sent our officers and when they met the purported anti-graft watchdog officers, they were somehow suspicious. They brought them to the Station and we were able to establish that the badges they had were all reading CEO of the EACC," Karanja told Citizen Digital.

Karanja has since contacted the EACC's Eastern Regional Manager to verify the identities of the suspects who remain in custody at the Kitui Central Police Station.

"We have contacted the Eastern Regional regional manager who is sending his team to come and verify whether these are genuine employees of the EACC," he said.

"We are holding the five suspects and are still processing them."

The OCPD further urged Kitui residents to remain on the lookout and report any instances of persons marauding as government officers.

"Should there be people purporting to be police officers who are not able to ID themselves positively, kindly call the police or DCI for action to be taken," he said.