Kenya Prisons refutes ‘Kamiti Call Center’ story

The Kenya Prisons Service has denounced a story that was run this week by a local media house purporting to reveal how inmates at Kamiti Maximum Prison allegedly con unsuspecting members of the public of millions of shillings.

In a statement, the Kenya Prisons Service, on Wednesday termed the so-called exposé titled ‘Inside the Kamiti Maximum Prison Call Center’ as fabrications. 

According to Commissioner General of Prisons, Brig (Rtd) John Warioba, the clip, which was aired on April 18, 2022, was recorded back in 2019 and has since been released to the general public.

The story captured the con games that inmates at the correctional facility are allegedly infamous for. In the story, one inmate by the name David Tett is captured by hidden camera make a call from within the facility to a targeted victim.

The inmate, while impeccably faking British accent, poses as a foreigner who is in Kenya but on his way to South Sudan. Towards the end of the video, he is heard inquiring about the victim’s age, among other personal information. 

Inmates con game

An anonymous source who spoke to the reporter who filed the story said the inmates conduct their dealings in the prison’s Block A, a busy area where no one should be caught idling.

But in its response to the story, the Kenya Prisons Service said that contrary to the story, the Mr Tett in question is no longer an inmate, having been released late last year.

“We wish to clarify that one David Tett, a former prisoner, who was referred to in the clip aired on April 18, 2022 as a mastermind of the vice (con game), was transferred from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison to Kamiti Medium Security Prison on July 22, 2021 from where he was eventually released on September 9, 2021,” the statement read in part. 

Brig (Rtd) Wakoba further said that the prison has undertaken serious measures to enhance the security and safety of the inmates, officers and members of the public.

‘The Kamiti of today is different from the one that was portrayed in the story of April 18, 2022,” he said.

Death sentence

Mr Tett, a foster son to former Cabinet Minister Betty Tett, was handed a death sentence for robbery with violence in 2013.  

He was part of a gang that violently robbed his foster father William Mulready Tett on September 6, 2011 in Karen, Nairobi. He successfully appealed the sentence and the court reduced his jail term to 15 years.

The story that was aired by the media house, reported that inmates at Kamiti use a particular brand of phone that has multiple SIM card slots and features that help in altering voices.

“Some of the victims marvel at the chance of hooking up with a foreigner, even if they don’t understand English very well, they are usually very happy listening to the accent. You have to entice the woman or man you’re targeting with romantic messages for like a week until they desire to meet you,” the source said.

“When they ask you to visit them, that’s when you bring up issues like the cost of traveling. You can tell them that you are en route from Lodwar and ask them to help you with some money because the petrol attendants don’t take card payments.”