More than 200 victims of a job scam caused drama in Eldoret city when they demanded an immediate refund of their money, amounting to Ksh300 million, from a company that promised them jobs in Canada.

The enraged job seekers, who include former employees in the public and private sector, and college and university graduates, accused the recruitment agency, Noble Global Services Consultants, of swindling them millions of shillings with a promise of well-paying jobs abroad.

Emotion ran high after the desperate job scam victims stormed the agency’s offices, only to learn that its director, identified as Gilbert Serem, had closed it and fled the country.

Fled to Australia

The director is said to have sent home all his employees after learning the victims of the job scam were planning to storm his offices located within Eldoret city before he took the next flight en route to Australia.

Julius Misoi, one of the victims, claimed that he paid Ksh750,000 to the director after he promised to secure him a well-paying accountancy job in Canada.

“I was working for an NGO in South Sudan as an accountant, and I had to resign after Gilbert, who is my cousin, convinced me to do so, saying that he had secured for me a well-paying job in Canada,” cried Misoi.

Misoi recounted that he also convinced his young sister to resign from her secretarial job in South Sudan, where she had been working for the last two years, to take up a lucrative job in Canada.

Speaking to the media in Eldoret’s Nandi Park, where they had converged, the furious victims accused the agency of conning them with the promise of jobs abroad that never came to pass two years down the line.

Visa requirements

They claimed to have paid the agency monies ranging from Ksh300,000 and Ksh700,000 each for visas and other facilitation costs for their travel to the foreign country.

The majority of the victims claim to have sold land and other family assets to secure the opportunity that never materialised, and instead were subject to more anguish and poverty.

“I paid Ksh480,000 for my son to secure employment in Canada last year, but the director of the agency has been dodging me. What I want now is my money and not a job,” John Ng’etich, a father to one of the victims, said.

Ng’etich said his family has been left in a pathetic state after selling part of their land to pay the agency.

He appealed to the government to intervene by helping them get a refund of their money.

Another victim whose family allegedly lost Ksh1.5 million to the agency is accusing the government of registering bogus agencies that have continued to swindle residents of the North Rift with fake job opportunities overseas.

“My family from Nandi county has lost more than Ksh1.5 million to this agency, and we blame the government for allowing such dubious firms to operate in this region, yet they know they are not genuine,” Alex Rono from Nandi county said.