A KDF officer imposter suspected to have conned innocent job seekers millions of money was on Tuesday arraigned before a Nairobi Court as police sought to detain him for ten days.
The police said Albert Owino Bandia is alleged to have obtained over Sh1 million from KDF potential recruits during the 2023 August recruitment exercise pretending to be a high-ranking officer in the military.
According to an affidavit filed in court, Bandia at the time of the arrest on September 17, 2023, was posing as a KDF officer of the rank of major based at the Department of Defense (DOD) in Nairobi.
He had allegedly obtained Sh1,007,000 from Mark Yasindi Wafula by falsely pretending that he was able to recruit three of his children to the KDF, a fact he knew to be false.
Bandia is said to have equally obtained money from other citizens who have reported to various police stations and others are yet to report.
Police informed the court that Bandia met with Wafula who was desperately looking for a chance for his sons at KDF.
"They met around the DoD where they discussed and agreed that he would sell him calling letters at a cost of Sh600,000. He sent him Sh603,000 through his mobile phone and another Sh154,000 through another mobile number belonging to his accomplice. Wafula would later part with Sh252,000 in cash," the affidavit reads.
After being issued with the calling letters, Wafula compared them with the ones issued to recruits at the recruitment centres and that is when he realized they were fake.
The police further informed the court that there were other suspects yet to be arrested who were in possession of the fake calling letters.
The Investigating officer informed the court that the two were a flight risk as they had no known place of abode.
"If released before the investigations are completed, the suspect would interfere with the investigations and disappear for good," the court was told.
However, Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi ruled that the Investigating officers failed to convince the court that there were compelling reasons to detain the suspect.
He released Bandia on a cash bail of Sh300,000 and directed that he reports to the DCI Parklands two days a week.
