Three held in fake identity card syndicate

by Adow Jubat

Police in Mandera town smashed a fake national identity card syndicate and arrested two secondary school teachers.

The incident comes at a time the country is facing terror threats from Somali militia group Al-Shabaab.

The syndicate believed to have been continuing for the last two years in the town bordering war-torn Somalia is claimed to have helped hundreds of foreigners live in Kenya illegally.

North Eastern PC James ole Serian told The Standard that three people suspected to be behind the scam have been arrested including two secondary school teachers and a senior forest officer from Mandera East District.

The PC said: "Police who were acting on a tip off raided the hideouts of the culprits in the outskirts of Mandera town. They apprehended the three, but a fourth suspect believed to be the mastermind escaped."

He added: "We are still hunting for a person named Osoro who is the mastermind of the ID issuance scam in the area who narrowly escaped during the raid."

During the operation, Mr Serian said, the police also recovered hundreds of used and unused registration forms and a roller for taking fingerprints of applicants.

He said further investigations are underway to get more culprits, thosewho acquired their cards through the scam and the source of the Government documents that were being use in the syndicate.

Local council chairman Mohamed Aden Khalif said the criminals had more than 5,000 new registration forms and several new person registration documents.

He added the scam is believed to have been going on for the last three years benefiting mostly illegal migrants from Somalia and Ethiopia.

From Nairobi

The official said: "We believe the scam is well orchestrated from Nairobi’s National Bureau office down to Mandera Registration office. We have been getting reports from our people of unfamiliar persons registering Ethiopian and Somali aliens even across the borders into these countries and the claims are now confirmed"

The official urged the Immigration Ministry to publish names of those who have acquired the document in the last five years saying it is possible to tell who acquired the IDs illegally.

"Our people have not been getting IDs in the last five years. We have been issuing them to students only and we want to know who else has acquired the document," said Khalif.

 

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