A Nairobi court has charged two of the ten suspects detained in connection with the Sh67 million fake gold scam with defrauding an American woman of Sh12.6 million.
In March 2022, Mr. Seth Steve Okute and Mr. Bruno Otieno Oliende were accused of defrauding Ms. Marjorie Grant of $100,000 (Sh12,613,000) by feigning their ability to pay customs fees for 33 kilograms of gold sent from Burkina Faso. They refuted the allegations.
After the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) retrieved the police case for review, their eight co-accused were not charged. Milimani Magistrate Esther Kimilu was persuaded by prosecutor Ann Munywa to postpone the eight accused’ scheduled plea negotiations until the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) makes a final determination on whether to pursue criminal charges.
The magistrate gave the prosecutor a 14-day extension and set the case for mention on March 6 so that the court could learn the results of the ODPP’s investigation. The suspects are Mugabe Patrick Biriko, Collins Kiprotich Langat, Elisha Mbadi Kimbero, Teddy Samora Kowino, Patroba Odhiambo Tobias, Samuel Wathika Gathuru, and Moses Otieno Oketch.
Although they are compelled to report to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations Office every Friday, they are now free on cash bail of Sh100,000.
They were detained two weeks ago on charges that they had conned two US citizens out of $534,000 (Sh66,696,600) in a fictitious gold transaction.
The eleven were detained after separate raids in the affluent Kitusuru and Kilimani neighborhoods of Nairobi.
