Nairobi News

General

Detectives arrest fraudster who has been masquerading as USAID boss


Detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on Tuesday afternoon arrested a cyber crime suspect in Nairobi.

According to the police, Paul Mwangi Njihia, 29, has been conning members of the public while masquerading as the boss of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Kenya.

FAKE GATE PASSES

The suspect was arrested following investigations carried out by sleuths attached to the Oversees Criminal Investigation Office.

In a statement, the DCI said that the suspect is a former computer technology student at a local university who was purporting to be the General Manager USAID Kenya within the Rift Valley region.

“The student then went ahead and started obtaining facilitation fees from members of the public. His job seeking victims who were later issued with fake gate passes are reported to have sent a substantial amount as facilitation fees to a bank account linked to the suspect,” DCI said in a statement.

IMPERSONATION

Mr Njihia, the DCI said, is already in police custody and will be charged with obtaining money by false pretence and impersonation.

For months now, the office of the DCI has calling for caution from members of the public following increased incidents of cyber crime during this period of coronavirus pandemic.