Hundreds of youths fall prey to “World Food Programme jobs”

By DANIEL PSIRMOI and LUKE ANAMI

Bungoma County: Over 1,000 youths in Bungoma County are crying foul after they were fleeced by unknown persons over a job advertisement that never was.

An advertisement purportedly from the World Food Programme posted at the chiefs’ offices required the applicants to pay Sh350 through their M-Pesa accounts as part of the application process. This has put a number of members of the provincial administration in the county on the spot.

Following the advert, hundreds of youth turned up in droves on Monday at the Kimilili, Bungoma North, Bungoma Central, Mukuyuni and Chwele district headquarters for the interviews.

However, they were shocked when the purported recruitment officials from the World Food Programme failed to turn up. WFP has since distanced themselves from the job advert terming it as fraud.

“WFP does not charge any fee during the recruitment process. That advert is fake, it’s fraudulent and therefore, should be ignored,” Rose Ogola, the public information officer said when The Standard contacted WFP.

“In fact we do not run any programme in Western Kenya and in Bungoma County in particular. We are not even trying to supply free fertiliser to farmers in the region as alleged. We wish to warn people that they should be careful with such adverts as they do not emanate from WFP.”

The angry job seekers who spoke to The Standard apportioned blame to the administrators saying that the said job advertisement fir 10 field supervisors and 200 survey and distribution clerks, were displayed at various chiefs and sub-county offices and some bore official stamps, hence jobseekers were convinced that they were credible.

“We each sent Sh350 through M-Pesa as the registration fee and were supposed to be interviewed today to fill the advertised positions in the district, but we have just realised that we were all conned,” Peter Wekesa, one of the affected youths told journalists at Mukuyuni, the Bungoma North Sub-District Headquarters.

The youth pointed an accusing finger at the local administration for promoting the advertisement.