Athlete Mercy Jelangat Joins The Long List Of Kenyans Conned Off Cash With Promise Of Fake Police Jobs

NAIROBI Kenya May 5 -Two people who defrauded celebrated athlete Mercy Jelangat of Sh300, 000 promising to enlist her jobless cousin into the National Police Service were on Friday charged in court.

Lilian Awuor and Abdalla Anyienda were charged with obtaining money by false pretences before Principal Magistrate Eric Mutunga of Makadara Law Courts.

According to court records, the offence was committed between April 1 and 4, 2022 in Kasarani, Nairobi.

Jelangat was informed by her friend that he had met influential people in government who could influence and help her enlist her cousin into the NPS during the March 2022 recruitment exercise.

She was advised to send the money which she later did, in two batches through Mpesa.

However, after receiving the cash, the suspect switched off the phone.

 The two were released on a bond of Sh150, 000 and an alternative cash bail of Sh100, 000. The hearing of the case starts on September 21 this year.

The two were charged barely two months after Paul Maina Kirera, who was arrested in the process of conning youths seeking employment with the Kenya Forestry Service (KFS), was charged with impersonation.

He was arrested at the KFS headquarters where he had allegedly introduced himself as a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officer of the rank of Brigadier to security officers.

Reports indicate that unsuspecting Kenyans have lost hundreds of millions to fraudsters who falsely pretend that they are in a position to facilitate their recruitment into the police service.

At least eight officers have been arrested and charged in court for similar offences in the last two months.

Last month, April, two other officers were charged in court with obtaining about Sh2.5million from five Police Officers by pretending they were in a position to help their relatives secure employment in the police service, Kenya Prisons Service and the KDF.

Constables Benson Chege Kangethe of DCI Lafey and Peter Mwaura of Kabarnet police station were arrested by detectives from the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) following the completion of Investigations.

The probe by the IAU further reveals that in most cases where senior officers were involved, the cases were never investigated.

One such case is one involving an officer of the rank of Commissioner of Police (CP) who has since retired and was charged last month at Makadara Law court with obtaining Sh400,000 from a parent who wanted his son enlisted in the service.

The senior officer committed the offence between January 28 and March 22 last year when he was the staffing officer at the Nyanza Regional police commander’s office.