The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, on Tuesday, arrested a man purporting to be an officer of the commission.
The suspect was arrested following numerous complaints from victims he allegedly extorted in his fake role as the Commission's Assistant Director of Intelligence Operations.
In his fake position, the suspect is reported to have extorted millions of shillings from many victims he swindled that he would sort out their corruption cases. The amount was, however, not made public.
"The suspect has reportedly extorted millions of shillings from many victims, including senior state officials, pretending to be carrying out corruption investigations implicating them, which he promises to ''sort out," EACC stated.
Officers from the EACC arrested the suspect at his hideout in South C where he was escorted to the EACC Integrity Centre Police Station for processing. The suspect will be detained at Kilimani Police Station pending further action on Wednesday.
In his possession, EACC found two fake staff identification cards with EACC logo and an entity called Kenya Network Against Corruption (Director-Intelligence & Data Survey) under Agutu's name.
This arrest came at a time when the EACC was tightening the loopholes and arresting members of the public posing as their officers. Cases of imposters have been on the rise in the nation.
In 2024 alone, the EACC has encountered over 350 cases of fake detectives conning Kenyans while pretending to be officers of EACC or other law enforcement agencies on official duty.
Kakamega, Bungoma, and Busia counties were put on the spot by the commission for establishing fake EACC offices and offering services for pay.
EACC has advised Kenyans to be on the lookout for the Anti-Corruption Investigations Agency a fake entity that has been receiving money from the public while purporting to solve Kenyan's corruption cases.
Kenyans have also been advised to beware of Clearance certificates that are being issued for candidates seeking employment at a fee, a service ordinarily offered by the Commission free of charge.
Among other fraudulent cases, these imposter officers purport to carry out arrests, investigations, and search operations. They then use this opportunity to demand huge bribes from their targets promising to skew the investigations in their favor or waive potential criminal charges.
Kenyans in business have also been advised to beware of imposter investigators who invade business premises claiming that they are inspecting compliance with various licensing requirements or counterfeit goods.
