Mystery as Burundian businessman linked to fake gold scam cartel goes missing for a week
By Eric Wainaina, February 26, 2020Mystery surrounds the disappearance of a Burundian businessman with Kenyan citizenship, who is alleged to have gone missing a week ago.
Samir Munyinyi, who has been battling claims being part of a network that has been swindling businessmen millions of shillings in dubious gold-buying scams, is reported to have left home at Ridgedways along Kiambu Road for work in the city. His car was found on Friday near a police station.
The businessman, who has active court cases related to a gold scam, according to his wife Esther Njenga, is said to have left home at around 11am in a black Mercedes Benz which registration number KCS 777, but did not get to work.
Phone went off
According to his wife who reported the matter at the Kiambu Police Station, Munyinyi’s phone went off shortly after he left home, and did not return home in the evening, which she said was unusual.
“I had tried reaching him on phone the whole day but it was off. In the evening, he did not return home at the usual time and after I reached out his office, I was informed that he did not report to work and that is when I decided to make a report to the police,” Njenga told People Daily yesterday.
Kiambu Police Boss Kimani Mitungo yesterday confirmed that the matter had been reported at the station and corroborated Njenga’s account of her husband’s disappearance, but said that they were still treating the matter as a missing person.
“We have not received any development to trigger another line of investigations,” Kimani said.
However, it has emerged that Munyinyi, who according to his Kenyan identity card that was issued at Westlands on March 24, 2015, was born in 1984, may have never gone past Muthaiga Police Station which is about six kilometers from his residence.
The car was found the same day abandoned at Wambui Road, a lane behind Muthaiga Police Station which links Kiambu Road and Thika Superhighway.
The car was found in good shape,” said Njenga who disclosed that she only learnt of the recovery of the vehicle on Friday, three days after it was found by passersby and taken to Muthaiga Police Station where is has remained to date.
According to the wife, CCTV footage retrieved from Fourways Junction Total Petrol Station, which is just near their residence, he was at the filling station at 11:22 am and that the case was found at around noon, meaning that his disappearance happened less than three hours later.
Retrieved call data
Detectives, according to Njenga have retrieved his call data from his mobile phone although it has not been shared with her.
Interestingly, Kimani said he was not aware of the recovery of the car.
Munyinyi has been on the wrong side of the law at least twice for being part of a gold scam syndicate at the JKIA.
He has been charged for allegedly defrauding Mertroglu Muhammet of Sh25 million, by pretending to sell them 360kg of gold in 2018.
According to the charge sheet, between March 28, 2018 and April 12, 2018 at Wuyi Plaza along Galana road in Kilimani, Nairobi, jointly with others not before the court, he fraudulently obtained 257,000 USD from Mertroglu Muhammet by pretending to be able to sell him the precious metal.
In another case, he is charged that, jointly with Congolese businessman Eric Amisi Bin Ramazani where they have been accused of obtaining from Vladimir Borisenko USD 202,404 (21,788,360 million) by pretending that they were in a position to supply him with 10kgs of gold.