Bogus recruiting agency cons desperate job seekers

By   Rael Jelimo and  Francis Koech

North Rift, Kenya: More than 500 job seekers from diverse areas of the North Rift fell prey to an unscrupulous recruitment agency.

The job seekers had applied for jobs with the unknown agency following advertisements strategically placed at a private notice board next to Komora Centre in Eldoret Town.

The advert indicated there were several positions to be filled at a supermarket that was opening a branch in Eldoret town.

It further revealed attractive starting remunerations for the different job categories, which included 10 drivers (Sh14,439) and10 cashiers (Sh16,745).

Other positions were 60 supermarket attendants, 10 CCTV attendants, storekeepers, M-pesa attendants among other jobs but with no indication of remuneration.

Jobseekers were left stranded at the gate of the Eldoret Sports Club, the supposed venue where the interviews were to be conducted. Another group of the interviewees were stranded at the Eldoret Town Hall.

“I saw the advert in town and immediately called the contact number. The man who received my call was a Muhammad, who went ahead to give me the requirements, which included a CV and Sh300 registration amount. I send them the money via M-Pesa,” said Lydia Chepng’etich, an Eldoret resident.

M-Pesa number

All the applicants admit to have sent Sh300 registration amounts to the number. They later received other calls from different people, who claimed to be supervising the interviews in the town and asked to be sent more money.

“I sent the man an extra Sh2,200 after I received the second call. My desperation for a job pushed me. He told me my job application would be processed faster and further promised that I would not have to sit for the interview,” says Stanley Korir, another jobseeker.

The M-Pesa transaction numbers were registered to Tete Muyesi 0718561297, Hussein Kenga 0706664735/ 0726647835 and Muhammed Jibril 0721904436.  The calls to the numbers were successful until about 9am, but were later unreachable after 10am, the ‘interview’ time.

Uasin Gishu County Executive Secretary in Charge of Trade Philip Meli cautioned the youth against sending money to unknown employment agencies. “I am asking the youth to be wary of conmen who purport to have employment opportunities for them. When the deal is too good, think twice. We will liaise with the administrative agents and police to unravel the incident,” he said.

He asked the youth to report the matter to the police for further investigations on the matter.