Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa has put on notice prison warders who collude with inmates to swindle unsuspecting Kenyans of their money.
Mr Marwa said that the prison warders are working with inmates and have been using fake mobile messages and operating illegal Mpesa transactions to deceive Kenyans.
He warned members of the public against suspicious messages asking them to send money to unknown people claiming to be in need of help.
Speaking to journalists in Mombasa County, Mr Marwa said the inmates are sending messages to unsuspecting Kenyans asking them to send a certain amount of money through M-pesa.
“After receiving this money, how do they do the withdrawal? Where do they get these SIM cards? Where do they get credit to send those texts? I can confirm to you that these people are not alone, there is an officer scheming all these,” said Marwa.
The regional coordinator revealed that a prison warder at Kibos Prisons station in Kisumu and an inmate had been arrested by detectives from Special Crimes Prevention Unit for using mobile phones to target residents from the Coastal region.
Marwa said the two have been operating illegal Mpesa transactions, Facebook accounts of prominent businessmen, government officials and politicians.
“As we speak now one officer has been arrested and investigations are ongoing to unearth all those behind this illegal act, we will bring all of them to book,” he added.
He urged the warders to ensure that the correctional facilities achieve their transformative role in society instead of acting as accomplice to criminals.