Kenyans have been falling for Ponzi schemes left, right and centre. From real estate to religion, conmen have been having a field day in recent years.
It's only appropriate we remember the names and incidents of con artists who stood out in the craft years ago.
Chameleone Market
In 2005, a group of farmers in Central Kenya became the laughing stock of the nation when they were duped into thinking that they could make money from selling the chameleons that roamed their farms.
A group of "investors" convinced the farmers they had secured a ready market for chameleons abroad.
Hearing the news, the farmers went into their tea and coffee bushes to weed out the creatures awaiting the market day where they had been told foreign nationals would come and buy them for Ksh 1,200 - 1,500 depending on the size.
Daily Nation reports that on market day, the farmers showed up in Mukurweini ready with heir chameleons, but no one showed up the whole day.
Erick Awori
Erick the champion baffled Kenyans when he broke not one or two but three Guinness world records.
Erick claimed to have driven a car from Mombasa to Nairobi then to Nakuru and back to Nairobi in reverse. After his exploits, Daily Nation reported that Westlands Motors awarded him with a brand new Toyota.
The famed 'reverse driver' attracted so much clout and fame that when he said he would attempt to drive a truck in reverse from Mombasa to Nairobi, DT Dobie gave him a brand new Mercedes Benz truck to complete the ordeal and even donated Ksh 10,000 for fuel.
The second drive was so well choreographed that an official from the Guinness world book of records was there to authenticate the attempt.
Assistant minister Sharif Nassir flagged off Awori on the night of December 11, but nobody knows what happened after that.
Awori was later found out to be a prankster and none of his Guinness world records was real. No official was ever in Kenya, and the whole con game was orchestrated from an office on Mama Ngina Street. The CID arrested him later and charged him with fraud.
Grace Aluma
In 1982, Grace Aluma entered Nairobi looking like a billionaire.
She called a press conference at Hilton to announce that she was engaged in uranium business and was scouting for big deals with the US government, one of her customers.
Top names, including politicians, fell for the con hoping to have a share of the Ksh10 billion which Aluma claimed to have in a Kenyan bank.
As an “investor”, she had managed to sell her story to some diplomats and was on the verge of selling International Life House to a diplomatic mission when she was smoked out. Auma was jailed for two years for fraud and conspiracy.
Dibla Amelia
The self-labelled Queen of Sheba arrived in Nairobi on the first week of December 2001 and booked herself at the Grand Regency Hotel presidential suite.
She claimed that she had come in search of diamonds and that she had Ksh15 billion which she intended to invest in Kenya.
Ironically, she had accrued a bill of Ksh3.4 million at the hotel, and the security refused to let her leave until she cleared. A Nairobi Magistrate later released her on a Ksh 500,000 bond.
Daily Nation reports that On the night of January 30, she was whisked to the airport and the Queen of Sheba disappeared.
Joshua Waiganjo
Kenya's top fake cop had to make it to this list.
To think that this man had the guts to join senior officers in an helicopter on a visit of troubled Baragoi, arrest and assault workers at a club in Njoro, inspect a guard of honour by Kenya Forest Service guards during a graduation ceremony at Londiani, order a new Land Cruiser for Njoro Police Station, control transport during the burial of Kenya’s 8th Vice-President Kijana Wamalwa among others is just mindblowing.
For all his escapades, Waiganjo got five years in jail. In 2017, he was even bold enough to vie for Njoro MP seat.
