Director Press Service in the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Salim Swaleh has been arrested.
Swaleh was arrested on Saturday, June 23, 2024, after suspected swindlers were found nested with fake door switch nametags in his office.
In a statement Sunday, June 23, 2024, the secretary for strategic communication in the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs (OPCS-MFDA) Peter Warutere said several fraudsters and government officers were also arrested alongside Swaleh.
“A cabal of fraudsters and government officers who facilitated their operations at OPCS-MFDA at Kenya Railways building were arrested yesterday, Saturday, June 22. Further investigations by relevant law enforcement agencies are ongoing to track and arrest other conspirators who may have been involved,” Warutere stated.
“The arrests followed a tipoff that alerted OPCS-MFDA security, who then mounted intense surveillance at the OPCS-MFDA Railways Office to disrupt the reported nefarious acts of impersonation and misuse of the facility by the fraudsters.”
According to Warutere, the group would masquerade as visitors and individually gain entrance into the Railways Building on different dates and times by falsifying their identities (as VIP guests or government officers), and the officers they purported to be.
Warutere says their victims were mainly foreigners who would be shepherded into the Railways Building ostensibly to meet high-ranking government officers for favours in exchange for bribes.
“The surveillance was able to also track and identify their co-conspirators, among them Government officers who facilitated their dastardly. Those arrested include Salim Swaleh, Director of OPCS Press Service, in whose office the swindlers were found nested with fake door switch nametags,” Warutere said.
He says the government officers arrested had perfected “renting” office space to criminals by either vacating their offices for the fraudsters’ use or deceptively misrepresenting themselves.
“This deception also meant switching legitimate name tags with fake ones on office doors to advance the scams,” he added.
“Upon being smoked out in one of the OPCS-MFDA Railway offices where the confidence tricksters had settled in wait for their victims on Saturday, the group had the audacity of attempting to bribe their way out.”
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