Pastor, four people charged with Sh8 million insurance fraud

Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Ngeta District pastor Andrew Okeyo alias Obango Machbiro at the dock in Kisumu court on September 11,2019 over conspiracy to steal Sh8 million from an insurance firm. [Denish Ochieng/Standard]

A pastor, an assistant chief and three more people were yesterday charged with conspiracy to defraud an insurance company of Sh8 million by forging a death certificate.

The five, who included two clinical officers, are accused of conspiracy to defraud, attempts to obtain money by false pretence, making a document without authority and uttering a false document with intent to defraud.

They denied all the charges before Kisumu Senior Resident Magistrate Martha Agutu.

The suspects are Pastor Andrew Okeyo (pictured) of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and Wilson Were - an assistant chief at Kakwajuok in Karachuonyo.

The others are clinical officers Alfred Nyangau and Harun Diero - who work at the Kendu sub-county hospital, and one Monica Boyo, a relative of the pastor.

In the first count, according to the charge sheet, the five conspired to defraud an insurance company by falsifying documents in support of whole life assurance policy for the late Samuel Odoyo, which was underwritten by the Kisumu branch of the insurance company.

The above offence allegedly took place between January 20, last year and April 2, 2019.

In the second count, Pastor Okeyo is accused of attempting to obtain Sh8 million from UAP Old Mutual Insurance Company Limited by falsely presenting a notification for the death of Odoyo and other supporting documents on September 10, last year.

The court papers did not, however, say whether the alleged policyholder was related to the accused.

Okeyo was also accused of conspiring with Diero and Nyangau on September 24, 2018, to falsify documents to show that they belonged to Odoyo.

Okeyo is also alleged to have uttered a forged certificate of medical examination to Irene Akinyi, an employee of the Insurance Company, Kisumu Branch, purporting it to be a genuine document, filled signed and issued by a clinical officer.

Lawyer Philip Odhiambo for Okeyo and Were, and Moses Omondi for Diero and Nyangau, asked the court to give their clients lenient bail terms.

The five suspects were each released on Sh150,000 bond or Sh100,000 cash bail. The case will be mentioned on September 25.