There were brazen liars and swindlers who when they came to Central Kenya region, they promised residents economic emancipation.
Those who cared to listen to these cons and opportunists did as they were told and before they could realise that what they were being promised was all hype, a high sounding nothing, the swindlers had escaped into thin air with a sizeable amount of their fortune.
Due to the entrepreneurial nature of residents in the region, most of the times they find themselves falling to the tricks of cons who come promising them 'hot air'.
Below we enumerate some of the economic tricks that residents in this region once fell for.
1. Development Entrepreneurship and Community Initiative (DECI)
This was a pyramid scheme whose whirlwind swept across Central Kenya in 2006 like a bushfire. Not even the men of the cloth were spared by the DECI madness.
George Donde who was the chief con approached pastors and bishops to help him sell the concept to their respective flocks.
While initial clients actually had their money tripled within three months as it was the promise, the thousands who joined later lost all their fortunes that amounted to millions of shillings.
2. Chameleons for money
In April 2005, a group of conmen approached hundreds of farmers in Mukuruwe-ini, Nyeri County promising them a ready market for chameleons.
One chameleon according to the swindlers, was to cost between Sh1,200 and Sh1,500 depending on the size and the colour.
On the day that the chameleon buyers were to come for their 'commodities', farmers crowded Tambaya market in Mukuruwe-ini with their chameleons but the buyer did not show up. The devastated farmers threw their chameleons away after they realised in the evening that they had been tricked.
3. Quail farming
This madness swept across Central Kenya in the year 2012 where farmers in this region were promised that a single quail egg would be bought at a staggering Sh200. They were also told that quail eggs had the capacity to heal cancer.
As usual, many people jumped into the idea and before they realised that this was all hype, almost everyone was rearing quails in their homesteads. Many people who had these birds converted them to meals while others let them fly to the jungle.
A renowned Kikuyu musician even composed a song 'Tutu tu-quail' (These Quails) where he says he would rather rear 'magogo' (eagles).