Court dismisses application to detain ‘fake Uhuru’ con suspects

A Nairobi court has declined to allow police detain for 30 days, seven suspects accused of conning Sameer Africa Chairman Nashud Merali Ksh.10 million while posing as President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The seven; Joseph Waswa, Duncan Muchai, Isaac Wajekeche, William Simiyu, David Luganya, Gilbert Kirunja and Anthony Wafula were arraigned before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi on Tuesday where the prosecution made the application to continue holding them.

Magistrate Andayi, however, declined the application noting that there were no compelling reasons to hold the accused for longer.

He directed that the accused be charged on Wednesday failure to which they will be discharged. Meanwhile, the suspects were detained at Muthaiga Police Station.

As per the charge sheet brought to court on Tuesday, the prosecution had only pressed one charge — conspiracy to defraud — against the accused.

The charge sheet reads that “on January 24 and February 1, 2019 at Prime Bank in Riverside Drive, Nairobi County, the accused jointly conspired with others not before court with intent to defraud, obtained Ksh.10 million from Akif Hamid Butt by falsely pretending that they were in a position to sell to Sameer Africa a piece of land situated in Milimani Area, Nairobi.”

The prosecution argues that the nature of investigations in this case are complex and requires more time to obtain communication data as well as establish details of the bank account which was used in the alleged fraud.

The seven were arrested last Friday and Saturday in a sting operation by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

During the operation, police recovered from the suspects four vehicles including a Toyota Land Cruiser V8, Toyota Mark X , Toyota Axio and Toyota Crown.

The fraudsters who were mostly targeting the #indian community are currently in lawful custody & will be charged on Monday. Four vehicles that they were using were also confiscated-KCS 768F Toyota Land Cruiser V8, KCS 994A Toyota Mark X and KCR 497Q Toyota Axio Silver. #ConAlert. pic.twitter.com/HV7qng6ESa

— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) February 23, 2019