- Mark Njihia was accused of obtaining the money from Francis Kimani by false pretences on diverse dates between November 11 and 19 last year.
- The offence was committed within Karen in Nairobi county.
Image: CLAUSE MASIKA
A KDF imposter was on Friday charged with conning a man Sh470,000 with the promise of securing a job in the military for her daughter.
Mark Njihia was accused of obtaining the money from Francis Kimani by false pretences on diverse dates between November 11 and 19 last year.
The offence was committed within Karen in Nairobi county.
Njihia impersonated a KDF officer of the rank of major and presented himself as being in a position to secure a job in the Kenya Defence Forces for Kimani's daughter Alice Nyambura.
The court heard that the accused introduced himself as Major Lihenzero Victor Kirima of Directorate of Military Intelligence and received part of the alleged amount outside the KDF’s National Defence College in Karen.
The cash was to be payment for facilitation.
Njihia was charged with using an identity card belonging to another person and he is accused of using the person’s ID card to register a SIM card for a mobile phone with Safaricom Limited without the owner’s permission.
He is also accused of having used the number to allegedly defraud other members of the public.
The accused is also charged with falsely presenting himself as the ID card holder —Lihenzero Victor Kirima.
Kibera chief magistrate Ann Mwangi granted him a Sh300,000 bond with an alternative bail of Sh50,000. The case will be mentioned on April 12.
According to the police report, Kimani was introduced to Njihia by his friend who is an accomplice of the accused.
The friend had told Kimani that Njihia is a military officer with the capacity to enlist his daughter in KDF. They later planned to meet in Karen.
Kimani is said to have taken his daughter’s academic certificates and certificate of good conduct to Njihia who allegedly demanded an application and facilitation fee.
The police report says that the complainant borrowed money from family and friends and sold his property to raise the money that he was allegedly conned by Njihia on the pretext he could get her a call from department of defence headquarters to go for a KDF recruitment letter.
He sent the last instalment via Mpesa on November 19 before Njihia switched off his phone and ended communication with him.