The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Thursday nabbed two suspected land fraudster believed to be part of a dreaded well-organized land-grabbing cartel that targets elderly white residents in posh Nairobi suburbs.
In a statement DCI said Jackson Mwangi Wambui and his accomplice Elijah Macharia were arrseted at the DCI Mazingira Complex premises after showing up at the Land Fraud Investigations Unit (LFIU) offices to influence an investigating officer (IO) to go slow on a case in which they are accused of attempting to grab a 0.2026 hactares parcel of land at Thome V area.
“In the daring bribery attempt to the country’s highest criminal investigations agency, all Jackson Mwangi sought from the investigator was a two-month delay in the ongoing investigations, within which he would have obtained a “fake original” documentation of the land,” DCI said in a statement.
Unbeknownst to the suspects, their names have for years been on the Unit’s radar of the most notorious land fraudsters in the country.
Suspecting that they were up to no good, the IO asked them to meet him at his office within DCI Headquarters, to which they agreed. Once in the office, they pleaded with him to halt the investigation process as they had found a way of acquiring fake documents, but they needed January and February to wind up the process. “You can then take us to court any time in March. We will know how to handle it there,” they said.
“Macharia placed Sh200,000 on the table as a tip to the officer, all this time unaware that the office they had been ushered into had mounted cameras that recorded all the ongoings. DCI Operations detectives moved in and whisked them away with the exhibits for processing and arraignment,” DCI added.
The sleuths fowarded a file bearing the appropriate charges against the two suspects to the ODPP in Kiambu for directions to have the suspects appear in court.
The ODPP directed the IO to release the two on Sh200,000 cash bail to allow the office enough time to peruse the file.
Preliminary criminal analysis conducted by the DCI Online and Digital Platforms Unit revealed numerous cases of land fraud implicating Jackson’s cartel, including the attempted grabbing of Mr Richard Hooper’s Karen home in January 18, 2023, where he personated to be the Deputy OCS Karen Police Station.
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