Homa Bay man kills self after being conned Sh3,000 in fake Safaricom promotion

Villagers have appealed to the government to do more to protect people from mobile phone scammers after a man killed himself in Homa Bay after being fleeced of his Sh3,000 salary.

24-year-old Dickson Otieno, took his life in his Kasewe sub-location, Rachuonyo East sub-county after being conned of his cash through a fake M-PESA transaction.

Otieno who worked as a farmhand had earlier received a pseudo SMS from the swindlers that he had won Sh75,000.

A caller posing as Safaricom official called the deceased and directed him to send Sh3000 facilitation fees to process the win.

Armed with his whole month salary of Sh3,000, Otieno quickly wired it the caller to receive the boom.

This turned worse when the called went offline immediately Otieno sent him the money.

Realising that he had been conned, the young man retreated to his house, locked himself before taking his life.

“He was told by the caller to send the Sh3,000 as quickly as possible to enable him to process his Sh75,000 which he had allegedly won in a promotion,” said one of the deceased kin.

"We want the government and companies such as Safaricom and Airtel to educate us on how to know scammers so that we do not witness cases like this," a local said.

Area Assistant Chief, Hesbon Asero asked locals to be cautious before responding to such requests and instead report such occurrences to the police before sending any money.

“There are scammers all over so people must be careful when handling calls from strangers. There is no way one would win in a promotion you never entered in the first place,” said Asero.

In another incident in Esani village in Nyamira County, a Form Four candidate killed himself after his parents lashed at him for going home late.

The boy, only identified as Nyakundi from Riasiago Secondary School was involved in a quarrel with his parents, who wanted him to be getting home early to adequately prepare for the forthcoming national exams.

His father, James Gichana said the boy locked himself in his bedroom and they thought he was changing from his uniform, only to commit suicide.