- Police said that after the confrontation with the allegations, one suspect fell ill and was rushed to a Hospital along Kiambu Road.
- However, the suspect has since recuperated.
Image: KITHURE KINDIKI/ X
Directorate of Criminal Investigation's Transnational Organized Crime detectives are holding 15 suspects in connection with the passport issuance corruption scandal at Nyayo House, Nairobi.
This comes weeks after Interior and National Administration CS Kithure Kindiki directed that investigations be conducted following public outcry.
In a statement on Thursday, the DCI said the ongoing operation was launched on Monday, October 2, 2023.
It took place in six departments of immigration services where staff, an intern and nine suspected brokers were arrested.
Police said the manhunt for more suspects who got wind of the operation and ran into hiding continues.
"In the classic case of grand corruption, members of the public and foreigners seeking passports and work permits respectively have been forced to part with huge sums of money to access services, after the officials took advantage of temporary system downtime to satisfy their sheer greed for extras," police said.
Police explained that the suspects then went ahead to plant brokers around the facility, to entice and collect funds from desperate applicants with emergency cases.
This was also done to persons who were able to influence special treatment at the expense of ordinary Kenyans who procedurally tendered their applications.
After days of meticulous forensic analysis and profiling of the identified suspects, the detectives raided the Department of Immigration Services on Monday, October 2 where five suspects (four staff and a broker) were whisked away for interrogation.
Confronted by the facts of the allegations laid against him, one of the suspects unfortunately fell ill and was rushed to AAR Hospital along Kiambu Road where he was diagnosed with heart attack and high sugar levels.
He was released on bail to continue with treatment as detectives sought custodial orders for the rest of the suspects at Kahawa Law Courts to complete investigations.
However, the suspect has since recuperated.
Police said that one staff at Nyayo House and eight brokers were also arrested.
"A trail of transactions by the suspects on their mobile money and bank accounts indicating how money was remitted to the immigration officers and their proxies has since been obtained, with the view of presenting water-tight evidence during prosecution," police said.
The arrest of the 15 comes barely six weeks after four other suspects were arrested on August 25 for soliciting bribes in the issuance of the passports.
Their arrest was preceded by a series of impromptu visits to Nyayo House by Kindiki, who sought to find out why there accumulated a backlog of over 40,000 passport applications and establish measures of clearing the same.
"We will clean up this place from corruption cartels on anyone asking for bribes here. We will arrest and prosecute them. We have already made some arrests and I want to make it clear that this space is not available for corruption," he said during one of the visits at Nyayo House.