Some of the parents of the six lost and found girls who are believed to be involved in a syndicate in Komarock Estate in Nairobi which could be recording videos whose use is not known.
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Detectives probe adults behind the disappearance of Komarock girls
What you need to know:
- Detectives say Carty-gang-ent is so organised that they are using international cellphone numbers to dupe the young girls into their devious schemes.
The investigators established that the criminals use international telephone numbers, although they operate from Nairobi.
Two of the girls who disappeared live in Kamarock estate while the other comes from Kamulu, about 10 kilometres away.
Detectives have intensified the search for administrators of an online child trafficking ring, which includes an Instagram peer group dubbed Carty-gang-ent, accused of luring young girls into drugs and exploiting them sexually, among other crimes.
Carty-gang is the common group subscribed to by scores of teenagers, including the three girls who went missing in Nairobi and later resurfaced on Friday, leading to their arrest and that of three other friends and group members.
Detectives say the gang is so organised that they are using international cellphone numbers to dupe the young girls into their devious schemes.
“Detectives are investigating an online cartel that has been luring high school girls from their homes for partying orgies that go on for days,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said yesterday. “Preliminary investigations have established the girls were lured out of their homes through a social media account named Carty-gang-ent.”
The investigators established that the criminals use international telephone numbers, although they operate from Nairobi.
This has raised concerns over the safety of children, as more cases emerge of online criminals baiting young girls with the promise of fame, money and a high-life in what feeds the growing social media culture of lavish lifestyles and chasing likes or approval from strangers.
Missing cousin
It all started with a video released on Thursday of a woman calling for help to find her missing 16-year-old cousin, which was then widely shared on social media.
It stated that seven teenagers had disappeared without a trace, giving an American number said to have been used to recruit girls in the pretext of offering them jobs. The video sparked the narrative that the young girls were being trafficked for sex.
The weeklong search ended yesterday when the girls emerged from their hideout, to the relief of their parents, and were taken to the DCI’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit and the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau.
“While being interrogated by detectives attached to the bureau, the girls revealed how they were lured from their homes and linked up in partying joints in Nairobi,” investigators said. “The DCI wishes to inform the public that we are hunting down members of the cartel and they’ll be apprehended to answer for their crimes. We further warn parents to take keen interest in their children’s activities at home and on social media networks.”
The DCI had warned those taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic “to prey on schoolgirls who are at home, especially through the social media networks, that their days are numbered”.
Instagram group
Two of the girls who disappeared live in Kamarock estate while the other comes from Kamulu, about 10 kilometres away.
One of the girls returned home in Kamarock, accompanied by friends who are also members of the Instagram group, while the other two were arrested by police in the central business district while on their way home.
The Sunday Nation interacted with the girls at Komarock before they were picked up by the police. They pass for typical teenagers fascinated by the glamour and high life they see on social media.
Their captors seem to have succeeded in brainwashing them. They adore online friends, questioning nothing on their intentions, and some feel their parents are stuck to ‘analog life’.
They talked fondly of their host, a 21-year-old woman, they only called Maria, as being kind and understanding of their needs as teenagers.
“You elders don’t understand. Once you meet online, you build a bond beyond the worries and doubts you’re raising. The questions you’re asking are yours. Don’t give me undue pressure,” one of the girls said.
What matters to them is that some stranger was there for them, something they feel their parents lack, so they escaped from the boredom of the Covid-19 restrictions to live the glamour of social media.
Separately, unnerved parents of two of the girls did an independent probe on the Carty-gang and came up with similar findings: that senior high school students had been fronted to appear as the ring-leaders, although they suspect some adults are behind it.
“There exists a group of traffickers based in Komarock Phase One, who recruit young, beautiful and brainy girls into a ring of drug users, lesbians and burglars. I am told about 20 girls around here are part of the ring. But we don’t know their master yet, although we suspect one of us,” said a mother of one of the girls. “They target bright girls. All these had over 400 out of 500 marks in their KCPE examinations.”
The gang leader dresses them expensively and takes their photos to be shared on Instagram.
By the time the parents discovered they were using the gadgets that should help them with their studies for these illegal activities, it was too little too late.
Social media
“I withdrew all phones and computer from my daughter ever since I learnt of the Instagram group called Carty-gang. But her friends still have their phones and transactions continue,” said a distraught parent.
The group meets and organises their activities on social media, and only leave home when called upon by their masters.
Some of their activities earmarked on the calendar include “Twerking Day” and “Smoking Day”, according to parents.
But the common card used to get permission from parents to leave the house is that they are attending a birthday party of a friend.
The digital space has made it convenient for criminals to lure and recruit girls into pornography, prostitution and thuggery using excuses like modelling, and service jobs as bait.
Yet this is not a Nairobi problem. During the Covid-19 times, many teenagers have been caught doing drugs and shooting pornographic videos. A group of high school students were recently arrested while filming a sex orgy at the Michuki Park in Nairobi for the Party Animals group on Instagram.
According to the police, the minors aged between 14 and 18, had contraceptives.
Last year, the Kenya Film Classification Board reported that sex exploitation of children had reached alarming levels, with foreigners taking advantage of weak laws in Kenya to make illegal films that earn them millions of dollars abroad.
“We are talking of children as young as 12 who are being introduced to pornography by foreigners. These children are exploited in this business worth billions of dollars,” said the board executive officer Ezekiel Mutua. He said one of the challenges the board is facing is failure by the police to carry out proper investigations on reported cases, saying the perpetrators had been left to go scot-free.
With lack of means to properly document cases of online child sexual exploitation, child prostitution and sale and trafficking of children for sexual purposes is clandestine in nature.
