MPs demand action on pyramid scheme scammers

Standard Reporters

MPs keep up pressure on Government to take action against architects of pyramid schemes that fleeced billions of shillings from unsuspecting Kenyans.

The lawmakers were angered by the apparent buck-passing in Government after Finance assistant Minister Oburu Odinga said Treasury had referred the matter to the Ministry of Cooperatives Development.

Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale on Thursday said the matter was a massive fraud that could not be easily wished away. Khalwale said the scams were executed by powerful politicians and demanded that Prime Minister Raila Odinga takes charge of the statement to Parliament.

Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo demanded the Government tables a list of names of owners of the collapsed money rackets being investigated by Government.

A report tabled in Parliament last year showed nearly 148,784 investors lost Sh8.2billion in pyramid scheme thefts in two years.

Top ten

The top ten swindlers took away Sh7.3 billion, the report by a taskforce commissioned by the Ministry of Cooperatives Development stated.

Parliament has pressed for seizure of property and assets owned by collapsed pyramid scheme directors to repay investors. It also asked the Central Bank of Kenya to release Sh5 billion held in frozen accounts belonging to the collapsed schemes and amnesty for disgraced directors willing to compensate investors.

But Oburu clarified the amount withheld in banks was Sh11 million. The taskforce identified hundreds of bank accounts in local and foreign banks traceable to these schemes.