The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) on Wednesday, July 7, arrested suspects believed to be part of a cartel that has been swindling unsuspecting teachers millions of shillings.
The cartel infiltrated the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) database and was working with employees in crucial departments within the headquarters.
DCI was alerted by complaints from teachers who had been defrauded large sums of money in unclear deals. The commission's boss Nancy Macharia wrote to DCI asking them to conduct investigations on the syndicate.
According to Macharia, the fraudsters used several Facebook accounts in her name and defrauded unsuspecting teachers promising to offer them employment and transfers at a fee.
The syndicate included a former records management employee dismissed in 2014 on grounds of questionable integrity. The retrenched worker managed to recruit the commission's principal accountant to his network.
The accountant gained access to details of prospective teachers who made applications to join the profession and shared it with the former employee turned con.
The ex-employee would then share the information through the fake Facebook accounts with applicants, who thought they were speaking to the TSC CEO. Combated with information that would only be available to the commission, the applicants easily fell for the trap.
They were asked to part with hundreds of thousands of shillings to secure the scarce opportunities which would otherwise be given to more 'cooperative' applicants. Graduate teachers were asked to cough out between Ksh100,000 and Ksh400,000.
In one case, the DCI stated, a primary school teacher in Bomet was posted to a school after submitting a letter of posting to the county director of education. However, the letter was discovered to be fake after working for almost one term.
In another incident, a teacher travelled from Kisii to Thika Secondary School to fill a vacancy. After a month, it was discovered that the teacher had not been hired procedurally.
Other fraudsters working in the pension department targeted retiring teachers. They tricked them offering to help them fast track their pension.
The teachers ended up losing their pension plus savings. Giving an example, DCI revealed that a teacher from Webuye had lost Ksh700,000 to the crooks in the treasuries pension department.
He gave out his personal details to cons who purported to link him to a shylock who would give him a loan. Acquired details were then used to process his pension and wire the money to an account the fraudsters opened in his name.
Deputy Principals and principals were charged more to secure promotions and managerial jobs respectively.
