Nairobi News

A Nairobi businessman was Monday charged with impersonating State house Deputy Comptroller George Kariuki and soliciting money from a civil servant.

Eliezan Mataiyan Mwai appeared before a Kibera court and denied presenting himself to Mr Peter Ngunjiri Mwita, an employee of the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, as Mr Kariuki.

Court documents state that Mr Mwai called Mr Ngunjiri on August 5 this year and introduced himself as Mr George Kariuki, the Deputy Comptroller of State House, Nairobi.

He allegedly claimed that Mr Ngunjiri had not attended his mother’s funeral and asked for ‘something’ in cash to condole him.

STATE JOB

The accused also informed the complainant that the President had instructed him ( Mr Mwai) to offer him ( Mr Ngunjiri) a state  job.

The following day, August 6, the accused again called Mr Ngunjiri to inform him that he was about to attend a meeting to discuss his job offer and reminded him of his promise to send a token to condole him.

In a statement to the police, Mr Ngunjiri sent Sh50,500 via Mpesa to the number Mr Mwai had used to call him and got a confirmation that the recipient was George Kariuki.

However he became suspicious when he received another message requesting for Sh100,000.

“I called State House and requested to talk to Mr Kariuki who informed me that he was not the caller. He asked me for the details of the number and told me it was not the first time he was getting such complaints,”  Mr Ngunjiri states.

Mr Mwai was arrested August 8 by detectives from the Special Crime Prevention Unit.

Hedenied the charge  before Senior Principal Magistrate Elizabeth Juma.

He was released on Sh50,000 pending hearing on August 25.