Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have cornered a wanted man in a passport fraud syndicate.
According to the DCI, detectives posed as West African men seeking help before approaching the suspect. The sleuths were speaking Nigerian Pidgin, which is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria, in order to lure the suspect.
The undercover detectives posed as Nigerians in their mission to nab the suspect behind the disappearance of new generation passports from job recruitment agencies.
The suspect was arrested with 22 passports with detectives based at the State Department of Immigration stating that there was a high demand for the new generation passports.
"He was arrested by investigators following a sudden high demand for the treasured travel document. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the passports are sold to West Africans who are in the country illegally, each at Ksh22,000," stated the DCI.
The undercover detectives posed as West Africans who wanted passports and were directed by the suspect to Mfangano Street where they nabbed him.
The detectives had promised to buy a number of passports from him.
"He was dealing with multilingual undercover agents, speaking a mixture of Yoruba and broken English. Once the deal was sealed, he was handcuffed and became a guest of the state, much to his dismay," the DCI stated.
"Most of the passports recovered belong to young female Kenyans who had deposited them at recruitment agencies for job opportunities in the Gulf states."
Authorities have been cracking up on people stealing and dealing in illegal acquisitions of passports. In 2019, it emerged that illegal immigrants were using fake Kenyan passports and other identification documents to live and work in the United Kingdom.
An investigative UK-based newspaper, The Sun exposed how an immigrant living in London was able to acquire a faked Kenyan passport for Ksh50,000.
The fake Kenyan passport, which was valid until 2022, suggested that the holder hailed from Kakamega County in the western part of the country.
