Kamiti inmate to spill beans on prison fraud syndicate
Patrick Amere, prisoner serving a life sentence at Kamiti prison. He wants to spill the beans on the operations of a fraud syndicate that targets high profile job seekers.
A prisoner serving a life sentence at Kamiti prison wants to spill the beans on the operations of a fraud syndicate that targets high profile job seekers. The syndicate is driven by prisoners and civilians outside the prison.
The inmate, Patrick Amere, Wednesday told a court in Milimani that he wants to record a statement with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) disclosing the people involved in the racket that conned a woman, who wanted to be employed at State House, of Sh800,000 two years ago.
Dr Selina Ambe lost her money in a scheme that involved the impersonation of Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa.
The money was wired to the inmate in different amounts, purportedly to facilitate her appointment to a State House position. She was conned between July 24 and September 11, 2020.
According to court and police documents, Dr Ambe had been promised a monthly salary of Sh2.2 million after being “appointed as a human resource officer at State House, Nairobi” in August 2020.
Appointment letter
So elaborate was the scheme that Dr Ambe was issued with an appointment letter and the inmate asked her to send an acceptance letter. She was also promised an official high end car and a fully furnished house equipped with a gym.
The house she was to occupy, she was told, was on State House grounds, she says in police documents of the ongoing court case.
She was also promised two laptops. The inmate even asked her to choose curtains in her favourite colour to be hanged in the house.
“I went to State House on September 7, 2020, to report for work. On arrival at the gate, the security informed me that my name had not been left with them. They directed me to Harambee House, but before reaching (there), I received a call from Mheshimiwa (the fake Wamalwa) informing me that my reporting date had been extended to September 14, still at State House,” she narrates.
She reported back again to State House on the new date but no one was aware of her appointment.
Conned
She went to the office of Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua at Harambee House, where she handed in her appointment letter. It was at that point she realised she had been conned.
When he appeared in court yesterday for sentencing over fraud, Amere asked Magistrate Susan Shitubi to issue an order directed to DCI boss George Kinoti to record from him a fresh statement, in which he would reveal his accomplices in the fraud syndicate.
However, the magistrate advised him to make the application formally before the trial magistrate, Ms Wendy Kagendo, on April 13.
The new development emerged two weeks after the officer commanding Kamiti Maximum Security Prison was ordered to produce the convict in court for identification by the victim.
The court was told the DCI was yet to launch investigations into the matter as directed last month.
High tech fraud
The magistrate had directed the investigating officer to attend court to present findings of the investigations to demystify the highly sophisticated web of high tech fraud linking serving prisoners and their accomplices outside prison.
The magistrate ordered crime detectives from the DCI to provide their report in court before Amere is sentenced.
The intended investigation is to unearth the syndicate and to bring to book Amere's accomplices who have been conning the unsuspecting public of huge sums of money.
When he was charged in court in February this year, Amere pleaded guilty to conning Dr Ambe of the money.
The fraud happened during numerous conversations via phone call with Amere and another person named 'Dr' John Machisu Munyauto, in which they used at least six mobile phone numbers and one landline.
Other conversations happened through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Amere is serving a life term for robbery with violence and has served time in several remands homes such as Manyani, Shimo la Tewa, Naivasha and currently, the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.
Mobile phones in prisons
In an expression of shock and bewilderment, the court wondered how electronic communication gadgets, including mobile phones, find their way to prisoners in the high security prison.
After defrauding people of money, Amere would send it to his sister June via M-Pesa, to keep it for him.
The prisoner is so well connected that when his sister was being arrested by detectives from the Serious Crimes Unit on March 5 at an M-Pesa shop in Nairobi, he was aware of the goings-on.
“While at DCI with investigators, Patrick called me … he was worried about my whereabouts. I asked him why he was worried about me. I was on loud speaker in the presence of the investigating officer,” she narrated to police.
“He really questioned me to be sure that it was me speaking to him. Upon convincing him it was me, he said that his worry was that I had been arrested,” she added in her statement to the DCI.
