Salim Swaleh is among government officials arrested on Saturday June 22, 2024 at the Office of the Prime Secretary and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Affairs (OPCS-MFDA) Musalia Mudavadi in Nairobi.
Swaleh served as the Director of OPCS Press Service and whose office the swindlers were found nested with fake door switch-nametags.
According to a press release, “a cabal of fraudsters and Government officers who facilitated their operations at OPCS-MFDA at Kenya Railways building were arrested. Further investigations by relevant law enforcement agencies are ongoing to track and arrest other conspirators who may have been involved.”
The arrests followed a tipoff that alerted OPCS-MFDA security, who then mounted intense surveillance at the OPCS-MFDA Railways Office to disrupt the reported nefarious acts of impersonation and misuse of the facility by the fraudsters.
The surveillance involved tracking a group masquerading as visitors. They would individually gain entrance into the Railways Building on different dates and times by falsifying their identities (as VIP guests or Government Officers), and the officers they purported to be visiting.
Their victims were mainly foreigners who would be shepherded into the Railways Building ostensibly to meet high ranking Government officers for favours in exchange of bribes.
The surveillance was able to also track and identify their co-conspirators, among them Government officers who facilitated their dastardly activities.
Apparently, Government officers arrested had perfected “renting” office space to criminals by either vacating their offices for the fraudsters use, or deceptively misrepresenting themselves. This deception also meant switching legitimate name tags with fake ones on office doors to advance the scams.
Upon being smoked out in one of the OPCS-MFDA Railway offices where the confidence tricksters had settled in wait for their victims on Saturday, the group had the audacity of attempting to bribe their way out. As deterrence, Government institutions are hereby cautioned to vet and oust disreputable Government officers abetting such criminal activity which appears pervasive due to lax securing of Government institutions and a growing appetite for quick money by public officers.
