Victims of the Vintmark Travel Agency job scam gather at Jevanjee Gardens in Nairobi on September 25, 2024.
Scores of job scam victims on Wednesday, September 25, stormed the Nairobi offices of a company they say collected millions of shillings from them under the guise of securing them overseas jobs that never materialised.
The Vintmark Agency offices at Kenindia House in the city centre were in chaos as angry victims gathered to demand refunds. Guards at the agency, which is linked to Mr Ceaser Wagicheru King'ori, hastily closed the offices for most of the day as the number of victims grew.
Mr King'ori's agency used social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook to lure hundreds of unemployed youth to his agency.
But after paying fees ranging from Sh120,000 to Sh140,000, supposedly for facilitating work visas, the victims say they were informed that their visa applications had been rejected.
Most of the victims said after they demanded refunds, the agency took them in circles urging them to find more people to secure refunds, Nation.Africa established.
Several victims said they were lured by TikTok videos posted by the agency to advertise various travel packages to countries where they claimed there were job opportunities.
Funny videos
The short TikTok videos featured young people making short, funny videos promoting the travel packages to Canada, Luxembourg, Kuwait, Qatar, Finland, Germany, Ireland and the UK.
After contacting the agency, the job seekers said they were assigned a 'consultant' who would work with them and guide them through the process.
Ceaser Kingori, director Vintmark Travel Agency Ltd.
The 'consultant' would help submit the visa applications on behalf of the applicants, but would retain the login details after receiving the facilitation fee. Those who had paid the required fees were then scheduled for biometrics at the respective embassies.
After receiving the payments, the consultant would disappear, only to reappear a few months later, making phone calls to applicants urging them to find other people as their visa applications had been rejected.
Ms Agnes Moraa Nyamweya told Nation.Africa that she realised too late that she had lost her Sh120,000. After asking for a refund, she was told to find someone else to get her money back.
"At that point, I knew it was a scam. I cannot see anyone else losing such a large amount of money. I told them I would not do it and they stopped picking up all my calls," Ms Nyamweya said.
Work visa
For some whose work visas were rejected, the agency helped them obtain a visitor's visa, leaving them stranded in a foreign country. Such was the case of Ms Mary Wangari, who left Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for the United Kingdom in April this year with the promise that an immigration lawyer would meet her in London and help her convert her visitor's visa to a work visa.
"Three minutes before departure from JKIA, I pressed them to give me the contact details of the host, only to find that I was talking to someone else who denied having any knowledge. They later sent a Nigerian man to meet me at the London airport, but I rejected him," said Ms Wangari.
Agnes Nyamweya shows a receipt from Vintmark Travel Agency at Jevanjee Gardens in Nairobi on September 25, 2024.
She was stranded in the UK after all the agents blocked her contact, having spent nearly Sh500,000.
In the months that followed, Ms Mary became frustrated and made several unsuccessful applications to be repatriated. A screenshot of a chat seen by Nation.Africa with one of the agency's directors shows that threats were made against her after she said she would report the agency. She is being hosted by a relative and has since lost hope of getting her money back.
"I have lost all hope and this was my livelihood. I don't know what to do. I do not want anyone else to go through what I am going through," Ms Ngari said in a telephone interview.
Ms Vane Moraa Osiemo said she visited the offices along Utalii Street in Nairobi in November 2023 and borrowed Sh100,000 to process a work visa for a job opportunity in Canada.
"They told me that they wanted to know how serious I was, so they told me to deposit Sh100,000 to start the process. After I deposited the amount, they processed the application and later I realised that my visa application was rejected," Ms Moraa told Nation.Africa.
The victims said they reported the matter to the Central Police Station under different Occurrence Book (OB) numbers.
