By sarah Omondi
A female Primary School teacher in Bomet County recently lost her job, three months after being employed, after it was discovered that her posting letter was fake.
The teacher, whose name we will not disclose, reported to the County Director of Education office with the letter and was posted to the school in the county, where a vacancy existed.
She had earlier parted with thousands of shillings to get the letter from some people who claimed to be senior officials at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
Also swindled within the same period was a male teacher from Kisii County who traveled to Thika and took up a teaching post at one of the Secondary schools only to be later established that he had not been hired procedurally after covering lessons for one month.
TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia in May this year revealed how fraudsters had opened several fake Facebook accounts in her name, and defrauded unsuspecting teachers millions of shillings, on the promise that she would offer them employment opportunities at a fee.
The office then invited the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to conduct detailed investigations into the syndicate after receiving numerous complaints from teachers, who had been defrauded huge sums of money in the shadowy deals.
Detectives from the Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau have established how a cartel consisting of former and current employees have been swindling unsuspecting teachers in the pretext that they would help them get employed, be promoted and transferred to schools of their choice.
The syndicate has left hundreds of teachers across the country including the retired, sad after defrauding them their hard-earned money.
The mastermind in the cartel is one Japheth Kyalo Kioko, a former records management employee at TSC who was dismissed from the commission in 2014 over integrity issues.
Reports shared by detectives show that the 38-year-old University of Nairobi graduate, recruited TSC Principal Accountant Jeremiah Musyoka Talu in his network to assist in accessing teachers’ personal information discreetly before sharing it with the cons.
In the well-planned scheme, Mr Musyoka accesses the TSC database and fishes out details of prospective teachers who have applied for various posts. He then shares the information with Mr Kyalo who uses CEO’s fake accounts to lure unsuspecting applicants.
For the applicants to believe they are communicating with the CEO, the cartel shares the prospective teacher’s personal information as captured in the database including the schools and the subjects they applied for.
Applicants are then asked to part with hundreds of thousands of shillings to secure jobs while being warned that the chances would be given to other deserving applicants if they fail to seize the opportunity.
The criminals also work with rogue officials from the pensions department and target teachers due to retire and promise to assist in fast-tracking their pension at a fee. Consequently, the teachers lose their entire pension and savings.
A teacher from Webuye in Bungoma County recently fell victim and lost Sh700, 000 in an intricate network that involved rogue officials at the Treasury’s pension department, cons and a Shylock.
One of the conmen lured the teacher into taking a loan from the Nairobi-based Shylock but unknown to him, the fraudsters took his personal details and used them to open an account bearing him at a bank in Webuye.
The details would later be shared with the rogue officials at the pensions department who processed the pension and wired it to the account before it was immediately reverted to another account operated from Nairobi where the funds were withdrawn.
The distraught retiree died shortly thereafter.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations in a recent update said the cartel in the vicious con game recently targeted graduated teachers whose chances of being employed were slim.
The offer of helping them secure a job ahead of their seniors who graduated earlier made many fall victim and part with the demanded money that ranged between Sh100, 000 and Sh400, 000.
Also conned are school heads and their deputies who are passionate about holding managerial positions-they are promised transfers to schools that are considered prestigious at some fee.
At least 14 cases of retirees conned are being investigated countrywide.
DCI announced the arrest of Mr Kyalo and Mr Musyoka and two other suspects on Tuesday night.
The other suspects are Mr Lawrence Mutunga Mumo who is an electronics engineer and Nathaniel Kanyagia Jambuya.
Police were on Wednesday allowed to hold the suspects for 14 more days as investigations into the matter continue.
