The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has intensified crackdown against mobile phone money transfer fraudsters, operating in Mulot along the Bomet-Narok border.
Mulot trading complex comprising three trading centres – Mulot Sunset in Bomet County, Mulot Central and Mulot Olomirani both in Narok County – is the unlikely cybercrime hub in East Africa.
The three centres are separated by Amalo river, which is the natural boundary for Bomet and Narok counties that have borne the brunt of being the home of the fraudsters, popularly known as swappers.
Bomet County Police Commander Robinson Ndhiwa said in the last one month, a total of 20 fraudsters have been arrested by the police in the ongoing crackdown aimed at ridding the region of crime.
“Police have arrested 20 of the fraudsters who have been charged in court with swindling unsuspecting members of the public of their hard earned money,” Mr Ndhiwa said on Saturday at a press briefing at the Bomet police headquarters on the sidelines of a New Year’s party held for officers at the station.
He revealed that one of the suspects was arrested three days ago in Nakuru and taken to Bomet to answer to charges of illegally transferring money from the bank account and mobile phone of a complainant.
Mr Ndhiwa said there was concern that most of the victims of the crime do not come forward to prosecute the cases, leading to the charges being dropped and the suspects set free by the courts.
“Interestingly, most of those engaged in the fraud are young boys who are school drop outs. Some of the suspects dropped out of primary and secondary schools and have been recruited into engaging in crime,” he said.
On Thursday, unknown suspects stole a visitors’ registration book at the gate of a secondary school in Sotik Sub-county in what was revealed, had resulted in one of the parents, an elderly woman, losing Sh10,000.
The unsuspecting parent is said to have been conned out of the money by a person posing as the bursar of the institution. It is believed that the suspect, whose details have been obtained by the CID, got details of the parent from the stolen school visitors’ register.
“Following the crackdown against the fraudsters in the Mulot area, they have scattered out to Chepalungu and Sotik sub-counties in a bid to avoid arrests. But we are dealing with them accordingly in their new hideouts” Mr Joseph Adongo, the Sotik Sub-county Criminal Investigations Officer said.
Mr Geoffrey Omwenga, the Bomet Central Sub-county Criminal Investigations Officer said the criminals have a tendency of siphoning out money from bank accounts of their victims and engaging in drinking sprees with women in Bomet town.
“We have profiled the suspects and a number of them have been arrested and more are on our watch list. I can assure you that we will rid this region of the criminals, even as they keep changing their mode of operation,” Mr Omwenga said.
Ten suspects engaged in the money transfer racket were arrested in December in Olbutyo, Chepalungu Constituency, in an operation by CID officers.
When police stormed the hideout of the suspects, they recovered 14 unused SIM cards, nine used Safaricom SIM cards and 11 national identity cards suspected to have been stolen.
"They had exercise books filled with names of persons, mobile numbers, Sim card pins, M-Pesa balances, fuliza limits and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) M-Pesa loan limits," a police report seen by the Daily Nation states.
The books had names and dates of birth of the Sim card holders, their home origins, among others, all of which have been kept by the police as exhibits in the case.
Five of the suspects – Titus Chepkwony, Marcus Kipkirui Langat, Brian Kipkirui Cheruiyot and Aaron Kibet and a minor were arraigned before the Bomet Resident Magistrate Mbethi Michuki where they denied the charges facing them.
Ms Michuki granted an application by the prosecution to compel Airtel and Safaricom mobile phone service providers to provide the DCI with registration details of particular mobile numbers and their statements of financial transactions among others, which will assist in the ongoing investigations.
