A group of women in the Nakuru CBD is said to be swindling unsuspecting residents masquerading as commercial sex workers and preachers with money-doubling abilities.
According to some residents who claim to be victims of the five, including one man, they target banking halls, hotels, restaurants and lodgings.
“Women trick men into lodging by offering readily available services only for the man to surface claiming to be the husband and before you realise, the have robbed you and they vanish,” narrated Evans Mweku, a taxi driver.
He says that his elder brother was robbed of a laptop, three phones and Sh20,000 in cash while he waited for him to come pick him up at Gitwamba Restaurant in the city centre.
Elizabeth Maina still recalls how she lost Sh50,000 after a lady approached her while queuing in a banking hall and promised to take him to a preacher in town capable of doubling up the amount.
“After identifying herself as a Ugandan working with an NGO aimed at ending poverty, I entrusted her to an office on the fourth floor of a building along Kenyatta avenue to meet the preacher who was also a lady and before I noticed, I was being thrown out of office by a man in a black suit on accusations of causing disturbance in a public office,” she said.
She adds that she was forced to close up her second-hand clothes business and sell some households to raise the money which belonged to a women's group because nobody believed her story.
Some residents believe the gang operates with some police officers in the area saying no arrests have been made yet.