Police in Eldoret are working with Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital to arrest a network of cyber criminals impersonating the hospital CEO.
Uasin Gishu county police commander Johnston Ipara said MTRH boss Wilson Aruasa informed the police about the activities of the criminals on February 14.
Ipara said since Arausa reported the case, cybercrime officers in collaboration with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had been monitoring the suspects using social media.
He said police managed to arrest three suspects believed to be the main suspects. The suspects were arraigned last week but police requested the court to allow their detention for 14 days pending investigations.
“MTRH CEO reported to us the activities of impersonators using his name to con people via social media on February 14 this year. Our officers have been monitoring activities of the suspects until last week when we managed to arrest three suspects believed to be the ringleaders,” Ipara said.
The suspects using Facebook and WhatsApp were Zacharia Kiprotich Sang alias Dr Aruasa, Richard Cheruiyot Rotich and Shadrack Kiprotich Rotich.
The county police boss said the suspects allegedly conned Kenyans of their cash.
Dr Aruasa hailed police for arresting the suspects.
“As a hospital, we have raised our concern to the police about activities of these criminals who opened fake Facebook and WhatsApp accounts in my name which they have been using to con people for the last six months,” Aruasa told the press.
The CEO said police had been working day in day out with the hospital's ICT staff to track the suspects.
Aruasa said MTRH recruitment was done openly and warned members of the public to be careful about criminals using his name to con people purportedly to help them secure employment at the hospital.
The suspects are expected to charged on June 6 upon completion of investigations.
Edited by Henry Makori
