Ceaser Kingori, director Vintmark Travel Agency Ltd.
The name of Ceaser Wagicheru King’ori alias Shrewd had first cropped up in August last year during an investigation into a Sh600 million jobs racket linked to a flashy city pastor.
At the time, the focus of the probe was Mr James Wanjohi of Jesus Culture Ministries Church, who was accused of collecting millions of shillings from thousands of job seekers for overseas jobs that never materialised.
Those who paid Mr Wanjohi —with fees ranging between Sh100,000 and Sh140,000 each — were subsequently slapped with visa bans by the Canadian Embassy in Kenya after their applications were found to have falsified information.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has since forwarded files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) recommending Mr Wanjohi’s prosecution alongside another suspect, Mr Alphonse Kioko of Amble Beginning Consult, who is also accused of defrauding thousands of job seekers Sh890 million.
Pastor James Wanjohi of Jesus Culture Ministries in Roysambu, Nairobi County. The pastor is also the founder Worthstart Africa, a recruitment agency.
In the course of these investigations by Nation, there were also complaints against Mr King’ori, then a budding job recruiter, but most of his victims who had come forward subsequently declined interviews, citing promises that they would get refunds.
Read: New tricks by rogue agencies to lure Kenyans with fake overseas jobs
However, they never got their cash back and instead the complaints against Mr King’ori and his firm, Vintmark Travel Agency Ltd, have been mounting at the DCI.
Vintmark operates from Kenindia House on Loita Street in Nairobi’s central business district.
Mr King’ori’s emissaries told Nation he was contemplating refunding the money to his victims, adding that publication of this story would dampen upcoming recruitment drives especially with new openings coming up in Germany where he is eyeing allocations from the government.
The Nation has combed through hundreds of witness statements filed at DCI by Kenyans and foreigners who complain they have collectively lost close to Sh720 million after they bought into the firm’s marketing strategies on TikTok and other social media platforms.
In the world of employment agencies, Mr King’ori is nicknamed Shrewd, perhaps given his aggressiveness to position himself close to power and push through his business interests.
Although he was not officially part of the delegation that accompanied President William Ruto to Germany to sign labour agreements, he found his way to Berlin during the presidential visit on September 13 and 14.
And Mr King’ori even posed for a photo with Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua on the side-lines of the signing of the Comprehensive Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement between Kenya and Germany, which President Ruto explained “provides various pathways for Kenyans to work and train in Kenya and Germany”.
Besides Dr Mutua, others who accompanied the President were Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and ODM leader Raila Odinga, who is Kenya’s candidate for the chairmanship of the African Union Commission (AUC).
Read: ‘I quit my job for this’: Heartbreaking stories of 7,000 in Eldoret Qatar jobs scam
And while he was hobnobbing with the Kenyan leaders at meetings in Germany on overseas jobs, he had left a trail of victims of his jobs racket back home, where investigators had summoned him for questioning but ended up complaining he was becoming untouchable.
“It has reached a point now that Mr King’ori has become elusive. When he was summoned last week by an investigator to record more statements after another group emerged claiming Vintmark has scammed them, he responded to the investigating officer that he was in Germany. He went ahead to share his photo with a Cabinet secretary,” Mr Njeru Nthigah, Nairobi Regional Criminal Investigations officer told Nation in an interview last week.
“I plan to have a meeting with CS Mutua and explain to him how deep the fraud is in the recruitment agencies and the tangible interventions that need to be effected with speed because the trend is worrying,” Mr Nthigah added.
Contacted, Dr Mutua told Nation on Friday that agents of recruitment firms who were part of the delegation to Germany paid their own tickets after making a request to the government.
“Many recruitment agents travelled to Berlin to witness the signing of the bilateral labour agreement, connect with German employment companies and to network. For those that asked us they wanted to also be in Berlin and make contacts, we said sawa (okay). All these agents paid their own fare. Recruitment agents who flew from Kenya or who are resident in Germany were over 50,” Dr Mutua explained.
He promised to look into the matter touching on Vintmark Travel Agency Ltd and the numerous claims of fraud.
After the Berlin visit, Mr King’ori’s company posted job openings in Germany, citing a presidential directive, a strategy set to lure more desperate job seekers.
Flight bookings
“Kenya has signed a deal to allow 250,000 both skilled and semi-skilled Kenyans to work in Germany. Let us make your dreams of travelling abroad to work, study, live, visit or travel come true, our services include visa application, flight bookings, flight reservations, job placement and passport application. Let’s start your application process today,” Vintmark Travel Agency Ltd posted on Instagram.
The Nation obtained statements by victims who, tired of waiting for jobs that never materialised, have reported the cases to police and want Mr King’ori to refund their money.
Ms Matshediso Ndhlovu, 37, is a driver based in Pretoria, South Africa. Ms Ndhlovu found out about Vintmark through Tiktok and Facebook on January 2, 2024. Between January 11 and January 14, she had wired R15,000 (Sh130,000) to Ms Catherine Wairimu Mugo, who is one of the directors of Vintmark.
Ms Ndhlovu was promised a caregiver job in the United Kingdom with a monthly salary equivalent to R45,000 (Sh390,000), according to her statement.
She was promised that the documentation would take 90 days after making the payment. But after wiring the money to Vintmark, Ms Ndhlovu was blocked from accessing the agency’s social media pages. Frustrated, she reached out to Equity Bank Kenya through which she had made the payment seeking to cancel the transaction. The bank wrote to Vintmark, but since early this year, she is yet to receive her money back.
“I hope to get justice done to me and others outside there,” Ms Ndhlovu says in her statement to police.
Mr Nsimire Mindinga is a Congolese and an asylum seeker in South Africa. In mid-October 2023, he told detectives at Nairobi area, he heard from people in South Africa about a Kenyan company known as Vintmark that was seeking job seekers for employment in Canada.
Searched online
“I searched online and found a travelling consultant by the name Risper Kwamboka on Tiktok. I chatted with her and she told me that they required a passport, family and academic documents. I, therefore, travelled to Congo to process my passport,’’ Mr Mindinga has told investigators.
On March 11, 2024, he flew into Kenya and visited Vintmark’s offices at Kenindia House. He says he found Ms Kwamboka who told him to pay Sh150,000. Mr Mindinga paid the cash in instalments starting off with Sh20,850 and was issued with receipt numbers 516 and 518.
On March 15, 2024, he paid another Sh109,150 in three instalments and was given receipt numbers 569, 570 and 571. On March 22, 2024, he paid the balance of Sh20,000 in cash captured under receipt number 615.
Ever since, Mr Mindinga has been camping at the DCI offices seeking a refund and a letter to confirm that he is not in Kenya illegally. Although he fears deportation, he has insisted he will not leave Kenya until he recovers his money.
Mr Samuel Kamando, a medical laboratory technologist, found out about Vintmark through Tiktok in February this year. Mr Kamando says he engaged the firm’s influencer and agent by the name Samuel Githui who informed him they had job openings in Canada.
On March 14, 2024, Mr Kamando visited Vintmark’s offices in Nairobi where Mr Githui took him through various job openings in Canada. He was assured of a driver’s job and asked to pay Sh150,000, which he eventually paid.
On April 26, this year, Mr Kamando went for biometric capture at the Canadian Embassy only to realise that the agent had applied for him a visitor’s visa instead of a work visa.
Worse still, and in an error that he believes was deliberate to scuttle the visa application, the agent had indicated that Mr Kamando was female. He is yet to get a refund from Vintmark.
“My visa application had a lot of mistakes, which I came to know were made deliberately for me to get a denial. For example, my gender was changed to female and at the end of the day I got a denial and the agent refused to refund my money,” Mr Kamando told Nation.
“When I visited Vintmark’s offices for my refund, the manager informed me that I should bring someone to continue with the process of visa application so that they can refund me the money. But I refused because it was a way of using me to commit a crime,”Mr Kamando added.
Mr Paul Mbatia from Kiambu is asthmatic and epileptic. He got to know about Vintmark through an advertisement on social media on May 25, this year. He contacted the firm and was promised a work visa and a caregiver’s job in Canada. He parted with Sh150,000.
A few days after paying the money, Mr Mbatia was admitted to a Kiambu hospital. He informed Vintmark that his health had worsened and wanted a refund. The refund is still pending.
Ms Mary Wangari, 34, is a Red Cross volunteer. Ms Wangari got to know about Vintmark through TikTok on November 27, 2023. On December 18, she visited Vintmark. She was promised a caregiver job in the United Kingdom. But she had to pay Sh150,000 with a promise of getting a work visa within 90 days.
Ms Wangari lost Sh150,000 and her persistent demands for a refund saw her blocked from accessing the company’s social media pages.
These are among the victims of Vintmark with documents in our possession showing how its employees and directors misled jobless Kenyans and foreigners to pay millions for non-existent jobs.
Even with the rising complaints and a DCI investigation, Vintmark is still in the good books of the National Employment Authority (NEA), the regulator.
When Nation reached out to Ms Edith Okoki, the NEA director-general, for a comment on why Vintmark continues to operate despite many reported cases of fraud and non-existent jobs, she responded that they had already written to the firm’s directors seeking answers to issues raised.
“We are aware of the issues raised against Vintmark Travel Agency and we wrote a letter to them this week so that they respond to complaints raised. We have given them seven days, if they don’t, we will cancel their license,” Ms Okoki told the Nation last week.
Vintmark Travel Agency Ltd is owned by Mr King’ori who has 1,666 ordinary shares. He is listed as a shareholder and a director, according to details of ownership in a CR12 generated at the Registrar of Companies.
But Mr King’ori yesterday denied being a shareholder.
“I’m not a shareholder at Vintmark Travel Agency. We do visa facilitation,” Mr King’ori charged.
Other listed directors are Catherine Wairimu Mugo and Caroline Wanja Muriithi with 1,668 and 1,666 shares, respectively.
Ms Wairimu and Ms Wanja and another lady identified as Grace Wamuhu Wanjohi also own Vintwood Travel Agency, according to a search at the Registrar of Companies. Ms Wairimu and Ms Wanja are listed as directors while Ms Wamuhu is listed as a secretary.
Later arrested
Documents seen by Nation show that on June 25, this year, the DCI Nairobi area had placed a stop order against Ms Wairimu and Ms Wanja to ensure that they did not leave the country. They were arrested and later released on a police bond.
But desperate jobless Kenyans and foreigners continue to fall for employment scams by agencies that fleece them of their money.
Mr Kioko’s Amble Beginning Consult and Frac and Calp and Ms Hannah Kaniu of Trevaron Travel and Tours Ltd are among those under investigation.
Hannah Muthoni of Trevaron Travel and Tours Ltd.
Files at the DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road and DCI Nairobi Area detail complaints by thousands of job seekers against Mr Kioko’s firms.
Investigators believe based on their preliminary investigations, his victims have lost upwards of Sh890 million.
Before setting up Amble Beginning Consult, Mr Kioko had Frac and Calp that operated from Nairobi and eventually folded.
To demonstrate his intricate web of job scams, the DCI on August 13, 2024, wrote to Interpol National Central Bureau requesting information on numerous companies that Mr Kioki claimed he was recruiting on their behalf.
With rising complaints and heat from the industry regulator, Mr Kioko stopped recruiting directly and instead started working with questionable travel agencies that left jobless Kenyans in tears.
He teamed up with Ms Kaniu who is the director and founder of Nairobi-based Trevaron Travel and Tours Ltd.
Kenyans were lured with promises of jobs in the United Kingdom and they paid close to Sh210 million to Ms Kaniu.
Detectives investigating Mr Kioko and Ms Kaniu allowed Nation to peruse through the bank statements of Trevaron Travel and Tours Ltd and Amble Beginning Consult.
Immediately the money was paid to Trevaron account, Ms Kaniu would wire part of the money to Mr Kioko’s company and personal bank accounts. He would in turn immediately withdraw the cash.
Currently, the accounts have a balance of less than Sh1,200.
Changing labour laws
Mr Kioko last Thursday blamed changing UK labour laws for the failure to secure the jobs. He could not commit whether his victims will get a refund.
“I have stopped recruiting and am now into visa facilitation,” Mr Kioko told Nation.
Ms Muthoni told Nation she should not be blamed for the saga because she sent the money to Mr Kioko who had promised her he had job openings in Germany and the United Kingdom. She could not explain why she never did due diligence before collecting money from the public.
Ms Muthoni told Nation that when she noticed that Mr Kioko was not genuine, she started refunding some of her victims. However, when Nation asked her to provide evidence of the refunds, she referred us to her lawyer who insisted she could not share material that is part of investigations.
For Mr Wanjohi, his victims who lost Sh600 million for non-existent jobs in Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and other European countries, are still waiting for justice.
Mr Wanjohi operated firms with different names including WorthStart Africa, WorthStart Travel Agency and WorthStart Barista Technical Institute.
