Kisumu locals toss suspected conman in Lake Victoria

Suspected swindler Benard Odinga during a confrontation with other workers at Kichinjio Beach in Lake Victoria. [PHOTO: DENISH OCHIENG/STANDARD]

A man behind a campaign for the manual removal of water hyacinth from Lake Victoria was Monday attacked and thrown into the lake over claims he swindled members of his former organisation.

Benard Odinga, the director of an organisation called Agulu Environmental Network, found himself in trouble when residents found him trying to engage another group to remove the weed.

The angry residents accused Odinga swindling them during the first phase of the project before it collapsed.

Drama started when locals spotted him at Lwangni Beach in the company of a group of women whom he had reportedly hired to remove the weed.

They followed him to Kichinjio Beach where they demanded that he pays them for work they did five years ago.

The youths claimed they had paid Sh500 to register with the organisation. They had been promised Sh600 per day.

Odinga said he had registered 560 youths. He said the money was used to buy equipment that was to be used in removing the weed.

"We bought 67 wheelbarrows and several machetes, which I have kept," he said.