- Police said Mutio was arrested at her rented house in Great Wall Gardens apartments, Athi River, Machakos County on Tuesday, January 10.
- She was nabbed by officers from Embakasi police station who had been trailing her for several months following various complaints made by her alleged victims of the con in several police stations.
Image: COURTESY
A wanted woman believed by the police to be a serial con has been arrested in Nairobi.
Tabitha Manti Mutio was smoked from her alleged hideout after several months of being hunted by police officers.
Police said Mutio was arrested at her rented house in Great Wall Gardens apartments, Athi River, Machakos County on Tuesday, January 10.
She was nabbed by officers from Embakasi police station who had been trailing her for several months following various complaints made by her alleged victims of the con in several police stations.
She is said to be having several pending cases in various police stations including those in Nairobi, Machakos, Kiambu and Kajiado counties.
"She was arrested after engaging police officers in a chase, hide and seek games," a detective privy to the arrest told the Star on Tuesday.
Police said the suspect is part of a con syndicate that terrorises unsuspecting members of the public not only in Nairobi but in various counties in the country.
She has been locked up at Embakasi police station awaiting arrangement on Wednesday, January 11.
Detectives said Mutio in September 2022 moved from her rented residence in Nairobi's Tena estate in Umoja to escape the police dragnet.
She together with her 20 - year - old son were being pursued for allegedly conning an unemployed teacher of Sh218,000 in a fake TSC job in Nairobi.
Her son Ronald Mambo Munyau was arrested during the operations at her house on September 16, 2022, while she successfully escaped.
Munyau was remanded at Industrial Area prison for allegedly conning the teacher.
Makadara law courts magistrate Eric Mutunga in September 2022 ordered Munyau to be remanded until he deposits Sh100,000 bond and surety of the same amount.
Munyau pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against him.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit a felony mainly obtaining money by false pretence.
The prosecution told the court that Munyau's main accomplice, his mother, was still at large.
He was arrested at his mother's house in the Tena estate of Umoja within Embakasi East sub-county on September 16.
The court heard that on diverse dates between July 4 and August 10, the woman who masquerades as TSC director based at the TSC headquarters in Nairobi met the complainant, Nicholas Kiplang’at, at Embakasi East sub-county and introduced herself as TSC director based at TSC headquarters and could help him secure a teaching vacancy at a school in Kathiani, Machakos County.
The woman is said to have introduced the complainant to the defendant who impersonated Kathiani's sub-county director of education.
The two are said to have taken advantage of the national mass teachers' employment between June and July 2022 to dupe the complainant.
Kiplangat said he was introduced to the woman by one of his friends who was also looking for a job but couldn't meet the woman's demands since he didn't have money.
According to detectives investigating the case, both the woman and son have saved their contacts as TSC director and Kathiani sub-county director of education respectively on the true caller.
Munyau is said to have received the money from the complainant on Mpesa.
An officer privy to the investigations then said the woman on the run had two other similar active cases in Dandora and Buruburu police stations.
In Dandora, the woman is said to have conned a parent by promising to secure her child a form one admission at Kenya High.
She allegedly cheated on the complainant that she was a friend of the school's principal.
The complainant suspected foul play after the woman failed to provide her with an admission letter as she had promised thereby reporting the incident to the Dandora police station.
In a pending case in Buruburu, the woman allegedly conned another unsuspecting job seeker of some cash after promising the person a teaching job which never materialized.