• Kahora was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last Friday, February 23, 2024.
• According to the DCI, he was on the run to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Image: DCI/X
The prime suspect in a 52kg gold scam deal in which an American national was defrauded $434,100 (Sh63,595,650) a year ago was arraigned on Monday.
Jackson Karungo Kahora was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last Friday, February 23, 2024.
According to the DCI, he was on the run to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
His arrest and subsequent arraignment followed a stop order issued against him by the Operations Support Unit detectives who have been pursuing the case.
The DCI said his two accomplices were arrested earlier and charged.
“The suspect was charged with conspiracy to commit a felony, obtaining money by false pretences and two counts of uttering a false document,” the DCI said.
“He pleaded not guilty to all counts and was granted a Sh600,000 bond or a cash bail of Sh300,000.”
Scandals involving fake gold have been an unending menace in the city despite potential victims being warned by police to be cautious.
Several suspects were on December 27 arrested in Nairobi over alleged involvement in a gold scam involving two foreign nationals.
Detectives recovered various tools of trade believed to be linked to the purported Sh2.85 billion fraudulent scheme.
The DCI said the suspects used a well-known mining company to contact their victims as from October 19, 2023, through social media.
“The suspects had alleged to transact with them 500Kg of Gold at $19 million equivalent to Sh2.85 billion,” the DCI said in a statement.
On January 2, 2024, a trader linked to the gold scam was arraigned and charged in relation to the gold syndicate in Kileleshwa, Nairobi.
Charles Vincent Njerenga appeared before Milimani chief magistrate Lucas Onyina and denied two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and attempting to steal $19,000,000 (Sh2.85 billion).
Njerenga was arrested with six others midst of a transactional meeting to defraud two Malaysian nationals in the upmarket estate.
Police said the suspects had in a well-choreographed scheme set up an operational base in a house in Kileleshwa with fully furnished office-style rooms to steal from unsuspecting foreign nationals.
A few minutes into the meeting, detectives from the directorate of criminal investigations busted what would have amounted to billions of shillings in a fake gold scheme.