Unsuspecting Kenyans have lost millions in a fake tender saga allegedly orchestrated through collusion between State House officials, Deputy President William Ruto's office staff, Department of Defence (DoD) operatives and fraudsters.
According to Nation, a group with suspected links to rogue staff at State House and DP's Harambee House Annex lure wealthy business people with fake "restricted" tenders mostly on laptops.
The fake multi-millions tenders reportedly come with complete documentations and targeted victims are invited for meetings inside these government offices to win their confidence.
To lure their victims, and give legitimacy to the fake transactions, the cons have access to these facilities, occupy offices for some time, and impersonate officials with suspected support of several insiders.
Separate complaints filed by more than 10 people reportedly indicate that the criminals masquerade as senior security officers and State House employees.
The cartel is also said to forge job identification cards, local purchase orders (LPO) and delivery notes, complete with letterheads and stamps.
One victim Charles Gathii Ng’ang’a lost at least Ksh240 million after he was "awarded" fake tenders to supply computers to State House and the Department of Defence between January and September.
He was approached by Fredrick Muhanji Mangala alias Douglas Simiyu who posed as a National Intelligence Service officer based at Nairobi’s Nyati House.
Gathii was to supply 1,200 pieces of HP Envy laptops, which he claimed were needed at State House for a security project.
Simiyu allegedly took the victim to to an office at State House and later to another on the second-floor of Harambee House Annex, which he was told hosts the presidential delivery unit.
Despite both facilities being highly protected, Simiyu reportedly easily gained access in both instances.
Mangala's accomplice, Eric Otieno Atanga alias Colonel Kiprotich, was charged at the Kiambu Law Courts with obtaining Ksh40 million from Gathii in connection to a fake DoD tender.
Simiyu introduced Gathii to Patricia Mareka (possibly a fake identity), a purported State House official who the victim also later met at Harambee House Annex.
The businessman equally noted that in their various meetings, Mangala was armed with a pistol.
After signing a non-disclosure agreement at Harambee House Annex on January 9, and taking the LPOs to the bank, Gathii was issued with the LPO by Mareka erasing any doubts the tender could be fake.
This saw him go ahead to buy and supply the 1,200 laptops on loan and they were later picked by Ms Mareka at his shop.
"After they delivered the goods, they came back with delivery notes, which had State House letterheads and stamps pending payment. You cannot doubt the deal," Gathii recorded with the police.
After the payments delayed for months, Gathii got impatient having previously submitted the invoice and being issued with stamped delivery notes.
In a similar case, Gathii got connected to the DoD where he was to supply laptops worth Ksh40 million for the installation of a security system.
After several meetings with a "Major-General George Abram Nyapindi" and other "senior officers" wearing military fatigues at offices inside DoD - the goods were once again collected from him.
Notably, on February 25, 2018 he met some of the said officials at Weston Hotel to negotiate the DoD deal.
Its only after the second delay of payments on the arguement that the officer responsible for payments had died in Somalia that Gathii realized he had been swindled and reported to the police who apprehended some of the suspected fraudsters.
Detectives are looking for suspects who had identity cards claiming they were Intelligence officers and State House officials.
On August 14, seven suspects were arrested at a residence in Westlands for masquerading as officers from the office of the Deputy President.
They were alleged to have fraudulently obtained 700 laptops valued at Ksh320 million from businessman Stephen Musyoka, purportedly to be supplied to the Deputy President’s office.
