Woman fakes own kidnapping, demands Ksh.30,000 ransom from mother

A woman is presently in police custody after staging her own kidnapping and demanding a Ksh.30,000 ransom from her mother.

Clare Muthoni was nabbed by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Thursday night at a bar with her friend Diana Wanjiku.

According to detectives, Muthoni’s mother – Jane Wamuyu, a resident of Sattelite in Riruta – two days ago received a message from her (Muthoni’s) phone number informing her that she had been kidnapped.

The alleged captors were demanding a ransom of Ksh.30,000 to secure Muthoni’s release failure to which, the message stated, “her throat would be slit open.”

The message was accompanied by a photo of Muthoni with her hands and legs tied, and a kitchen knife beside her.

Ms. Wamuyu was further warned that her daughter would also be killed if she contacted the police over the situation.

However, with little else to do, she went ahead and reported to the Karen Police Station anyway, upon which detectives from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau of the DCI took over the matter.

The sleuths, working on intelligence, went to Misiani village in Kangundo where they lay an ambush waiting to pounce on the alleged kidnappers, only to find out that there were none.

They discovered that Muthoni had taken up residence at Website Bar with Wanjiku, where she (Muthoni) hatched the plan to stage her own kidnapping and demand ransom from her mother.

Both of them were arrested and are presently awaiting arraignment.