Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

A police officer is among five suspected fraudsters expected to be arraigned in a Kitui court today after they were arrested on Friday while impersonating officers from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to extort money from county government officers.

The 46-year-old female police officer is attached to Muthangari Police Station in Nairobi County.

A statement issued by EACC spokesperson Eric Ngumbi on Saturday, the five, four men and the female cop were arrested and detained at Kati Central Police Station while carrying out a fake search exercise at the home of the county director of revenue.

Notification

The Commission received a notification from the local OCPD and confirmed that the individuals are imposters and not staff of the EACC. They have been deceiving unsuspecting public officials by promising to manipulate investigations in their favour.

They had claimed that the revenue director was involved in corruption and escorted her to her residence after producing a fake search warrant purportedly issued at the Milimani Law Courts.

However, their conduct and the purported search they were carrying out raised suspicion, upon which officers from Kitui Central Police Station were alerted.

The individuals were immediately arrested and escorted to the station where a search revealed that they had fake job cards for EACC investigators.

Kitui Central sub-county police commander Peter Karanja told the media that the documents the imposters had designated all of them as Chief Executive Officers and Director of Anti Corruption Intelligence.

Machakos regional office

“There was suspicion whether they were real officers from the EACC. We arrested them and contacted EACC Machakos regional office to come and verify if these are their officers,” said Karanja.

The EACC has since confirmed that the arrested individuals are fraudsters and do not work for the commission.

Ngumbi said that the suspects are believed to be members of a criminal gang that has been defrauding unsuspecting public officers while posing as the commission’s detectives.

“They are fraudsters who have been deceiving unsuspecting public officials by promising to manipulate purported investigations in their favour,” Ngumbi stated.

When caught by DCI Officers who responded to the complainant’s distress call, they produced a ‘search warrant’ supposedly issued at Milimani Law Courts and job cards in the names of William Kirui Rono, Meshack K. Matina and Mary Nzilani Mwaniki, designated as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Anti-corruption Intelligence.