Police in Thika on Tuesday afternoon arrested a 30-year-old woman who has been defrauding members of the public while posing as an employment agent.
The accused, Lewity Karimi was nabbed at her hideout in Makongeni estate in the outskirts of Thika town, where she had gone into hiding after she defrauded a primary school teacher of Sh60,000, meant to get her son a placement job in Dubai.
According to the Kenyatta Primary School teacher Florence Karanja, the deceitful agent had approached her on September 21 with an offer to get her 22 year-old-son a well paying job in Dubai, but she was supposed to part with the aforesaid money to help process travel documents and a work permit.
“I gave her the money with the promise that my son will get employment in Dubai, only for the woman to disappear with the cash and even switched off her phone,” said Karanja.
It was only after Labour Cabinet Secretary Kambi Kazungu deregistered all existing employment agencies early this week that several complaints were launched against the masquerading agent, and a joint manhunt was launched by victims, area chief and police officers as it emerged that the said ‘agent’ had conned several other people.
She is currently held at Makongeni police station where investigations have been launched to verify how many people she had conned and appropriate charges will be preferred against her.
Area OCPD Shadrack Maithya confirmed the incident, saying residents should be careful with such people.