Hundreds of trained jobless teachers in Baringo County have been having sleepless nights after con men siphoned their hard-earned cash in a teacher-recruiting syndicate that has seen them lose more than Sh3m cumulatively. 

The scam which transcends county boundaries as echoes of regret and cries of justice reverberate across the hills and valleys of Elgeyo Marakwet County and the plains of Uasin-Gishu County. 

One of the victims (name withheld) has threatened to commit suicide to end it all rather than stay alive and service a bank loan of Sh450,000 which she took from a local bank. 

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, the 25-year-old trained maths and Business tutor, regretted her actions saying that the scammers manipulated her owing to her desperation to secure a job after five years of hunting for a job to no avail. 

“A friend of mine introduced me to a man who she claimed to have connections with the bosses at TSC Headquarters in Upper Hill in Nairobi,” she says adding that, after meeting with the firebrand conman only known as Koross, she was convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that her job-hunting efforts had finally bore some fruits. 

Little did the young woman know that her dreams of securing a job would remain comatose for the unforeseeable future with her money going down a deep hole. 

A subdued Eldoret-based senior detective at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is yet to come to terms with the epic scam and is equally regretting that the Sh120,000 emergency loan he took from a lending institution in the town, has been swallowed by criminals out to prey on the desperation of jobseekers. 

The bruised officer who didn’t want to be named for obvious reasons said, “I applied for the funds after a friend informed me about an ongoing teachers’ recruitment at the TSC headquarters. 

“I was happy that finally, my jobless daughter would get a job after years of joblessness. His hopes and those of his daughter now lie in a heap of broken dreams. I don’t have the wherewithal of how I will find the money to repay the loan since my payslip is stretched to the limit,” he says, adding that he has since resigned to his fate,” he said. 

The teachers’ fate hangs in the balance as their efforts to get back their money have hit a snug several times leaving them holding on to their fake posting letters. 

“One of the scammers has switched off his phone for almost 10 days while his accomplice is on and off with false promises,” he says. 

Sally Jepkosgei*, 24, is one of the con game victims. She rues the day the master conman who is the father of one of her high school classmates informed her of opportunities at JSS in Baringo County. 

The resident of Kabarnet Town is now a pale shadow of her former self after her family sold off their land to secure her the job. The seductive conman told her that she needed to pay Sh100,000 to be employed by the TSC. 

She was instantly bamboozled and informed her father who in turn, sold his land to fund the false job hunt. 

Narrating their harrowing experience in the hands of the scammers, two of the victims, both residents of Baringo said that reality has since dawned on them that they may never get back their money. 

“We resent the posting letters to TSC offices in Kabarnet Town but after checking for our names on the recently employed teachers from the county, our names were missing,” she told the People Daily. 

Speaking to the People Daily an officer at the Baringo TSC County Director confirmed the scam saying that his office is inundated with scammed victims following up on their employment letters before their posting date expired on March, 19 which is indicated as their reporting date to their respective schools. 

“I would like to advise every Kenyan to adhere to the constitutional provisions of Chapter Four of the Constitution of Kenya on Integrity. 

Two coordinators of the syndicate a Towett from Kericho County and Koross from Baringo County have since switched of their phones after learning that authorities have laid a dragnet for them. 

The letters, some of which this writer got access to, bears all the TSC signage complete with watermark and stamp. 

One of the scammed teachers says that she and her fellow conned teachers took the letters to TSC Kabarnet Branch only to be told that the documents originated from River Road, Nairobi the epicentre of fake documents including degrees and title deeds.