How rogue officers defraud public in cash-for-job scam

Rogue officers have been defrauding the public millions of shillings on pretence that they would facilitate their recruitment into the police service.

At least five officers have been arrested and charged in court for similar offences in the last one month.

Two other officers have been arrested and will on Thursday be charged with obtaining about Sh2.5 million from five of their colleagues by pretending they were in a position to help their relatives secure employment in the police service, Kenya Prisons Service and the Kenya Defence Forces .

Constables Benson Kangethe of DCI Lafey and Peter Mwaura of Kabarnet Police Station were arrested by detectives from the Internal Affairs Unit (IAU) after investigators completed investigations.

“The two accused officers were arrested on April 11 following DPP’s directive and detained at Capitol Hill Police Station. However, they were later released on police cash bail of Sh10,000 each pending appearance in court at Kabarnet on April 20,” IAU said. Investigations further reveal that Kenyans have paid over Sh600 million in the last two years to join the police service during recruitment. However, only those who were defrauded reported their cases.

Probe further reveals that in most cases where senior officers were involved, the cases were never investigated.

One such case involves a retired officer of the rank of Commissioner of Police,  who was last week charged at the Makadara Law Courts with obtaining Sh400,000 from a man who wanted his son enlisted in the service.

 The senior officer committed the offence between January 28 and March 22, 2022 when he was the staffing officer at the Nyanza Regional police commander’s office. The complainant, Lawrence Nyakebondo, had reported the matter at Jogoo Police Station in Nairobi, accusing Jabel Ngele and his accomplice Wabwoba Kisumo, but the officers only preferred charges against Kisumo.

Warrant of arrest

Aggrieved, the complainant reported to the IAU who then investigated the matter and later forwarded the file to the ODPP with the recommendation that the senior officer also be charged. The DPP concurred and the file was registered in court.

 Ngele was arrested on Tuesday last week at his Lavington office after being on the run for months. Makadara Court had issued the IAU detectives with a warrant of arrest on December 16, 2022.

 He is a former Administration Police (AP) officer, who once served as the Homa Bay County AP boss before being moved to the Kenya Police Service during the 2018 merger.  In another case on March 29, AP Constable based in Gatundu South was charged in court with obtaining Sh500,000 from Ben Nasibo, by falsely pretending that he was in a position to facilitate the enlistment of his son into the AP service.

The officer was arrested on March 24 within Gatundu Law Courts where he attended another case in which he is also accused of defrauding Titus Towett of Sh600,000 for the same. 

 In June last year, Corporal Kennedy Ojode, attached to the DCI Academy was charged in court with obtaining Sh250,000 from a woman by pretending he could secure her employment in the service.

 Just before the February 22, 2021 police recruitment, Cpl. Ojode invited a woman to the DCI Academy in South C, Nairobi.

He had earlier assured her of helping her join the service and the invitation, as detectives later learnt, was to win the young woman’s confidence in order to dupe her.

The woman later went and organised with her family members and raised Sh250,000 which she later deposited in the officer’s account. She was never recruited and later learnt that she had been defrauded.

Detectives, however, say the extent of the fraud cannot be immediately established as many successful recruits who paid between Sh300,000 and Sh400,000 are reluctant to discuss the matter since it may jeopardise their job.