Kasarani four: 'How Fred Obare conned me Sh100, 000'

Investigations into the killings of four friends accused of money fraud took a new twist after it emerged one had conned the lover of his accomplice.

The bodies of Fred Obare, Frank Obegi, Moses Nyachae and Elijah Omeka were found in Kijabe Forest and Magadi amid claims of their involvement in a cash and cryptocurrency scam.

It emerged Wednesday that Ms Doreen Makena, Omeka’s lover, had complained of losing Sh100,000 to Obare.

According to statements recorded by Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) detectives, Ms Makena had a complaint against Obare over a Sh100,000 academic writing account.

Obare’s body was found in Magadi, Kajiado County on Monday while the bodies of Obegi, Nyachae and Omeka were on Sunday found dumped in Kijabe Forest in Kiambu County.

Agreed to pay

According to the statement, Obare, who went missing on Thursday, had agreed to pay the money since he was not in a position of getting another academic writing account. The case is different with yet another one involving cryptocurrency and in which he was arrested by detectives at Kasarani and handed over to Ruiru Police Station. He settled the matter last May.

The Nation has established that Obare, who had business dealings with Omeka, last Thursday left his home in Santon, Kasarani, for Ruiru where he was to broker yet another deal of selling another academic account.

Academic writing accounts are popular especially amongst university students and rogue sellers take advantage and sell faulty accounts to unsuspecting clients.

Obare’s wife, Stephanie Mburu, told detectives and family members that her husband had told her that he had been called by Ms Makena and he was to join her in making a report at Kasarani Police Station that her husband was missing.

Phone switched off

On Thursday evening, Ms Makena called Ms Mburu asking whether her husband had arrived home but he had not. According to Obare’s brother Finley Mokaya, Obare’s phone was switched off at 2.30pm the same day, moments after he spoke to Ms Makena.

“That was the last time we heard from him,” he told the Nation on Tuesday afternoon. It has also emerged that Ms Mburu had also left the city to an unknown location and was not cooperating with the family anymore.

When the Nation reached out to her she said she had no comment on what had transpired.

At Kasarani Police Station, Ms Makena was told that she could not file a missing person report at the station which is located exactly 20 kilometres from Kamakis where she lived with Omeka. She was asked to report the matter at Ruiru Police Station.

Officers in Ruiru also asked her to report the matter at Gatong’ora Police Station, which was nearer where she lived. A senior detective privy to the investigations said officers were wondering why she opted not to report the matter at Gatong’ora.

“On the same day, she was also in constant communication with Omoka, whom she was saying had gone missing two days earlier,” the detective said.

Yet to record statement

It remains unclear why Ms Makena is yet to record a statement with the police 72 hours later after the bodies of the four were found and taken to City Mortuary.

On Wednesday, she told the Nation that she was living in fear and could not talk about what had happened.

“I am worried about the incident and I am not ready to talk about the issue right now,” Ms Makena said.

Omeka’s family is now demanding for justice and want detectives. Ruiru Sub-county Police Commander Justus Ombati said Ms Makena had been asked to report the matter to the police station near where she lived.

“She came to the station on Thursday to report that her boyfriend had disappeared. She then told us that she had been referred to the station by officers in Kasarani but when we asked her where they lived we had no option but refer her to Gatong’ora,” he said.

Unexplainable source of wealth

Obegi’s father admitted that his son had an unexplainable source of wealth despite the fact that he had dropped out of Multimedia University while in second year.

Mr Evans Bowendo travelled all the way from Nyamira County after he was informed that his son’s body was lying at City Mortuary.

He said Obegi had told him that he used to sell air tickets online.

“He had a lot of money, he would visit Mombasa frequently and when I asked him what he was doing, all he said was he used to sell air tickets,” Mr Bowendo said.

On Tuesday, Mr Peter Mwanzo said detectives were investigating whether the four were engaged in online fraud.

“Our preliminary investigations show they had an unexplained source of wealth. We are investigating whether they were engaged in online fraud linked to cryptocurrency,” he said.

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