A con is pretending to be me: Police spokesman Charles Owino

By Agnes Aineah | 6yrs ago | 2 min read

A con is out on the loose masquerading as Police Spokesman Charles Owino and defrauding unsuspecting Kenyans.

When we called one of the numbers the con has been using, the call went unanswered but was quickly followed by a text message.

“Plz send sms,” he replied and went silent for a while as we typed a request in an equally informal writing to veil our intention.

“Hey Mr Owino, my brother who is a police officer has been arrested by EACC. I don’t know what to do. Kindly who else can I talk to apart from you Mr Police spokesman? This is the only contact my brother gave us.”

This message jolts him into action and after frantic text exchanges, he finally makes a call.

First, he is cross for not being referred to with the amount of respect he says he deserves.

“Do you know who you are talking to? Do you know that I am Owino and I have the power to hire or fire anyone in the police ranks as I wish?” he says and disconnects the call, threatening not to help me unless I address him properly.

The call was in response to complaints that a con was masquerading as the police spokesman. Owino said the individual who police were looking for had several phone numbers, including 072244591X, 072241780X and 072221355X, and several Facebook accounts pretending to be a police officer.

“He has conned many ignorant Kenyans who call his numbers looking for favours. Most of them call looking for promotions, transfers and many other favours,” says Mr Owino.

“He mostly uses 072241780X which is close to my number.” Mr Owino offers his telephone contact, 0722412734, for Kenyans looking for police services.

According to the police boss, the impostor has also opened four Facebook accounts and created a rich online platform he is using to dupe innocent Kenyans into paying for a variety of services. He said he is not on Facebook.

The police spokesman said he has reported the matter to the DCI.