Police launch a manhunt for woman suspected of swindling people of donor funds

Upendo Welfare Society members during a meeting.[Kipsang Joseph,Standard]

Police are pursuing a prominent Naivasha businesswoman for allegedly swindling hundreds of people including former Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), billions of shillings from donors.

The trader who has gone into hiding had promised the victims funding through over 70 Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) for various projects before going into hiding.

Over 1,000 members of the CBOs drawn from all parts of the country stormed the offices of the Naivasha Deputy County Commissioner (DCC) demanding justice and donor cash.

During the meeting, the traders accused the trader and a local bank of defrauding them, after paying registration fees of between Sh25,000 and Sh70,000.

Addressing the victims, majority of whom were elderly, Naivasha DCC Josiah Odongo directed officials of the CBOs to first record a statement with the police as part of the investigations.

He said that his office was not aware of the fraud that started over 15 years ago, adding that police were seeking the woman involved in the incident. “There are so many allegations about a certain bank and senior persons and it is wise that you have evidence before you are arraigned in court for tarnishing other people’s names,” he said.

Flanked by senior security officers, he called on the victims to produce all documents they had used to pay the trader as part of investigations.

One of the victims, Paul Rotich from the Tumaini Peace Initiative in Kuresoi said that each CBO had shared project proposals with the donors.

He narrated their pain as they moved from one government office to the other seeking justice as the main culprit moved arround freely.

The chairman of Upendo Welfare Society Josphat Karanja said that they had evidence that billions of shillings from donors were being hoarded by a local bank. “We have gone to the Central Bank and the Treasury headquarters and have documentation that the donor cash running into billions of shilling was deposited in the bank,” he said.