Senior prison warden in Sh200m fake job racket surrenders to police

Grace Nyamohanga, 50-year-old officer, arrested for alleged forgery, making a document without authority, and obtaining money by false pretenses. [Courtesy: DCI]

A senior warden at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison has surrendered herself to the DCI.

Grace Nyamohanga appeared before DCI serious crime Unit investigators on Sunday morning after the DCI announced that she was being sought to help the police with investigations into a Sh200 million fake job racket.

The 50-year-old officer was detained and is expected in court to answer to three counts.

Investigators have lined up among other charges: Forgery, making a document without authority, and obtaining money by false pretenses.

Her arrest brings to three the suspects in police custody over the job racket.

The officer is said to have conned hundreds of desperate job seekers of their hard-earned cash, in the pretext that they could help them secure jobs in Government. DCI chief George Kinoti said the senior Prisons officer had been conducting the con game for the last 10 months.

On Friday, officers from the DCI headquarters raided the suspect's home in Nairobi and recovered hundreds of fake job offer letters. Also recovered from the house of the suspect are fake dollars amounting to Sh2.4 million.

Kinoti said the racket also involved other junior officers, including a driver. The driver is said to have pocketed Sh5.7 million from unsuspecting job seekers, who were required to pay between Sh300,000 and Sh400,000 to secure jobs.

The suspects are said to have promised to help the job seekers secure jobs with, among other organisations, the National Police Service, National Intelligence Service (NIS), Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and other government parastatals.

Kinoti said one victim, a woman, was from Kiambu. She claims to have been conned of Sh800,000 and promised that her three children would secure jobs at the National Health Insurance Fund, Nairobi Metropolitan Services and the Kenya Ports Authority.

The woman however reported the matter to the police after the contacts failed to respond to her calls and claimed that the job offers had been affected by Covid-19 restrictions. Kinoti said the complainant filed a report with the police in January and investigations began.

Another group of victims who had paid huge amounts of cash to secure jobs were treated to drama when they were taken to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for a familiarisation tour.

During the visit to JKIA, close to 60 victims were taken around what they were made to believe would be their new workstation. They also received a lecture from a person alleged to be from the human resource department.    

They were then directed to report to their new work station March 18, 2021. However, that would be the last time they heard from the person who helped them secure their jobs.

“Dejected victims have since been trooping to our headquarters to file reports detailing how they unbelievably fell for the tricksters' machinations," Kinoti said on Twitter.