A representative of over 400 youths who say they were duped into paying for a false job scheme has demanded a refund of over Sh1 million they lost.
Nicholas Too from Ngata farm in Nakuru said the youths were lured into paying Sh2,320 as the appointment fee to a small and medium enterprise (SME) agency that claimed it would train the jobless using donor funds.
He accused one Zachariah Simba, who claimed to be the leader of the SME and who was arrested last Thursday, of cheating them into paying for a false cause.
“After paying the money for appointment letters, we were promised that each of us would have earned between Sh600 and Sh1,300,” he said.
He added: “The Sh2,320 was payment for us to undergo intense training and facilitation to visit schools, villages and churches to hire whoever needs free training in any field of their preference. It sounded like a good deal and worthy cause for the unemployed.”
Too told journalists that Simba recruited the youths using a building that houses the Trade ministry offices in Nakuru Town.
He said they smelled a rat recently after being told the date of commencement of their “training” had been postponed yet it was the day they were to start getting pay for their field work.
They then checked with authorities, including the Kenya National Examinations Council and relevant national government offices in Nairobi where they established that the SME outfit that hired them is not registered.
Accompanied by about 20 youth who fell prey to the alleged con game, Too said their initial contacts with Simba and his group were at a Nakuru hotel where the their expenses were catered for by the “employers”.
“They provided us with M-Pesa account numbers, documents and an occurrence book number that indicated that Simba was in custody at the Nakuru Central police station.”
It is now emerging that over 2,000 Nakuru residents, mainly unemployed youths, may have fallen prey to the scheme.