City tycoon loses SH300, 000 to gay fraudsters

By David Odongo

The Nairobian can exclusively reveal that a network of homosexual blackmailers has a thriving business in the city.

The group uses handsome young men to lure gay but married men in influential positions through local gay websites.

The two will then meet in a hotel room for a romp, only for pictures and videos to be released hours later to the man who is then asked to pay a substantial amount of money or the pictures will be sent to his wife, colleagues at work and the general public.

Investigations by The Nairobian have revealed that several well-connected and rich individuals in the city have been swindled by the cartel.

One of the victims who agred to speak to The Nairobian revealed that the conmen entice one to humiliating acts that many opt to pay their way out to silence them.

Documents seen by The Nairobian indicate that Paul (not his real name, a top employee at a renowned technology firm in the city, had to take a Sh300,000 loan to pay off the blackmailers.

In an exclusive interview with Paul, he says he met Vin Vihn (his Facebook name, the profile is currently active) and after a quick chat, they both knew what they wanted.

A meeting was arranged in town and Vin suggested they meet at a hotel in Nairobi West.

“I also wasn’t comfortable with a hotel in town since it could raise eyebrows if people saw two men coming out of a room. He claimed to know a private but decent place in Nairobi West and we went there,” Paul says.

The unsuspecting Paul got down to business and when done, he left Vin Sh4,000 as fare and planned when to meet next.

“It was around three, and when I got to my office in Westlands it was almost five. An unknown number had been calling and I didn’t want to pick so when I got to the office, I called back. It was a man. He simply asked for my personal email and sent me pictures of Vin and me in the act. He also sent another email with a three-minute video of me and Vin,” Paul says.

“I stayed in the office until ten in the night, not sure of what they wanted. I knew I had been set up.”

The next morning, his phone rang at about 9am and he rushed out of a meeting to pick it. The man wanted Sh300,000 in cash or he would send the video to his colleagues and wife.

He pleaded with the blackmailer that he couldn’t raise the amount and that he only had Sh64,000 in his account.

“The man just laughed and said, ‘Nyinyi wahindi mna pesa mingi sana, utapata (You Asians are rich. I know you can get money)’. I pleaded with him for a while and he didn’t back down. He told me if I go to the cops, he will post the pictures on the internet,” says Paul.

He eventually withdrew the Sh64,000 and was told to take it to Interfina House entrance where he gave it to a woman in a buibui who immediately vanished into the crowd.

Paul had been given two weeks to take a loan from Maisha Bora Sacco, and pay the blackmailers the balance. Fortunately, his loan was approved within a week and this time, he banked the cheque.

The money was then to be delivered to at the GPO by noon on August 13.

“I got to the GPO at exactly midday, and the man called me and told me to get into the second Kenya Bus in the queue headed to Kibera and sit right behind the driver. The bus was still empty and after I got in and sat, he asked me to leave the parcel in the seat and walk away. There were some people in the bus and I think the man was at a place he could see.  He also had an accomplice in the bus. I left the parcel and started walking away. All this time, the man was on phone, urging me to just walk away and not look back. He hang up when I had arrived at Loita House,” he says.

What hurt me most during the two weeks of torture is that the man kept sending me emails three times a day, attached every time, was a different picture of me and Vin. It kept me very unproductive at work.”

Paul says he has started repaying the loan.

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