Corridors of deals: How fraudsters exploit state offices in multi-billion scams

It is not the first time Kenya’s major security installation, which houses key government offices, is in the news for all the wrong reasons.

With brazen courage and sheer audacity, fraudsters have posed as senior government officers capable of swiftly moving files through the corridors of government offices and even fast-tracking the award of multi-billion-dollar contracts.

Harambee House is Kenya’s seat of power, where the business of the nation is supposed to be conducted with the highest level of integrity.

But the red-carpeted corridors of the crucial building have become hollows of illicit transactions that have left many shedding tears and losing millions.

This was the case in 2020 at Harambee House Annex during a Sh40 billion fake tender deal, where investors were given access to the Office of the Deputy President and parted with cash in fictitious transactions.

In some instances, the web of conmanship in the corridors of government offices has even led to loss of lives.

In the most recent and audacious case, seven suspects were arrested this week, on March 11, 2026, dramatically arrested right inside the Office of the President.

They were in the middle of negotiating a deal, allegedly to help a Swedish businessman clinch a tender to supply 500 ambulances to the Kenyan government.

As detectives nabbed Michael Musyoki Ngumbi, Evans Simotwo, Geoffrey Were Odondi, Allan Mutahi Kariuki, Purity Njeri Njamiu, Muniaro Jared Masinde, and Kororia Simatwa, the investor had already lost Sh60 million.

Detectives presented them before Milimani Court Senior Principal Magistrate Teresia Nyangena, arguing they were probing the seven over claims of obtaining money by false pretences, acquisition of proceeds of crime, money laundering and possession of proceeds of crime.

The court heard that Musyoki, Simotwo, Were, Mutahi, Njeri, Masinde and Simatwa are believed to have played different roles in the alleged syndicate.

But even before this, Kenyans may recall the arrest of former Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa, which laid bare the blueprint for high-level operations within top government offices.

In 2020, Echesa and his associates were said to have orchestrated a fake Sh40 billion tender to supply sophisticated military surveillance equipment to the Kenya Defence Forces.

The scheme read like a Hollywood script. The men, it is claimed, targeted a Poland-based arms dealer, Eco Advanced Technologies.

To make the deal credible, the foreigners were introduced to a man posing as a high-ranking military “General”. This imposter carried a swagger stick and was driven around in top-of-the-range vehicles with a security escort, projecting an image of immense power.

But the masterstroke was access to a high-security installation building. The investors walked into the Office of the Deputy President.

They mingled with staff and security, which made the deal appear not just real but state-sponsored. Investigators said they even visited the Ministry of Defence headquarters on Lenana Road multiple times, obtaining receipts bearing what appeared to be official KDF stamps.

The men, presenting themselves as close associates of the then Deputy President, are reported to have pocketed USD 115,000 (Sh11.5 million) as a down payment from the investors. The plan was to extract further millions.

Investors suspicions

The illusion only shattered when the investors, despite being granted access to high-security offices, sensed inconsistencies and the DCI was tipped off, leading to the arrests.

In 2020, a Nairobi businessman narrated the shocking details of how he was duped into a fake Sh181 million tender to supply laptops to the Office of the Deputy President in a sophisticated scam that involved official-looking emails, meetings inside government premises and documents bearing the DP’s official logo.

Stephen Ngei Musyoka, a director of Makindu Motors, told Chief Magistrate Martha Mutuku that he believed the tender was genuine after receiving an email from the official Office of the Deputy President domain confirming that their company profile had been accepted for the supply of 2,800 laptops to the Ministry of Devolution.

The communication, which appeared to come from the highest corridors of power, prompted the businessman to travel from Mombasa Road to Harambee House Annex, where they were ushered into the DP’s office complex by a man identified as Johan Osore and introduced to a flamboyant businessman, Allan Chesang, who would become the mastermind of their nightmare.

Between May and August 2018, Musyoka delivered thousands of laptops to the fraudsters in multiple batches, each time receiving Local Purchase Orders bearing the unmistakable branding of the Office of the Deputy President.

The elaborate façade finally crumbled when Musyoka received information that laptops matching his supplies were being openly sold at computer outlets in Nairobi’s Central Business District.

Sending a proxy to purchase ten units confirmed his worst fears - they were the very machines he had delivered for a supposed government tender.

He immediately reported the matter to the actual Office of the Deputy President. The shock of losing Sh181 million, money he had sourced and invested in good faith, sent Musyoka to the hospital for two weeks.

Security consultant Richard Tuta says what links these cases is a common modus operandi.

“In most cases, the fraudsters use forged documents bearing government logos, drop the real names of senior officials in conversation, and rent office space near key government buildings,” he said.

“The recent cases should prompt a security review within protected installations. Security agencies should be keener on vetting visitors more thoroughly and investigating how these criminals breach tight security cordons to hold their illicit meetings,” said Tuta.

He says there are two ways security agencies can deal with such crimes.

“Through denial and deterrence. Denial means access is restricted. Deterrence is simply ensuring the price to pay is too high if you are caught. Railways have ballast along their lines and no one steals it. Years back, they dealt firmly with anyone vandalising the railway line and it became the norm. No one touches railway lines or their metallic signage,” said Tuta.

Psychologist Faith Nafula Atsango says the conmen exploit the psychology of “location”.

“A meeting at Harambee House or the Deputy President’s office acts as a powerful psychological anchor, making the impossible seem possible. They use the ultimate bait: access. When a foreign investor or local trader walks into a government building and meets people who talk like insiders and move freely within the corridors of power, their guard drops. They become convinced they have hit the jackpot.”

Long before the Harambee House ambulance scandal and the Echesa military tender fraud, another case established the template for high-level State House impersonation.

This was when Sameer Group chairman Naushad Merali was conned by a syndicate that weaponised the ultimate tool of deception - the voice of the President himself.

In February 2019, the business tycoon received a call from a number that displayed as belonging to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The voice on the other end was indistinguishable from that of the Head of State. It had the same baritone and authoritative tenor. The caller informed Merali that State House required facilitation fees to assist in the purchase of a prime piece of land in Milimani, Nairobi.

With Merali out of the country at the time, he immediately directed Sameer, Africa Finance Director, and Akif Hamid Butt to process the payment.

The fraudsters, a seven-man syndicate led by Joseph Waswa, including an IT expert identified as Gilbert Kirunja, who had perfected the art of mimicking the President’s voice, provided an Equity Bank account number into which Butt wired Sh10 million.

To pull off the deception, the gang had gone to extraordinary lengths. They programmed their phones using the Truecaller application to display the President’s name and used their knowledge of State House protocols to sound entirely legitimate.

The plan was foolproof until Sameer Africa, seeking to follow up on the land transaction, wrote a formal letter to State House requesting an audience with the President regarding the Milimani property.

State House officials immediately contacted Sameer Africa to inquire about the mysterious “deal” between the company and a “fake President Kenyatta”.

The matter was immediately reported to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, and detectives swooped in on the seven suspects.

The case, however, would never reach its conclusion because in July 2021, Naushad Merali passed away, and by May 2023, the Director of Public Prosecutions was forced to drop the charges against the seven accused after the investigating officer confirmed that key witnesses, including Butt, could no longer be traced.

So high are the stakes in this dirty business that anyone posing an obstacle can be killed. In 2011, government officials facilitated the theft of then DRC President Joseph Kabila’s 2.5 tonnes of gold.

When investigations were launched, the lead investigator, Joseph Cheptarus, was waylaid at his gate and shot dead.

Another fraudster who perfected the art of impersonating senior government officials is Godwins Agutu, a man who seamlessly shifted between anti-corruption champion and sophisticated conman while wielding fake government credentials and orchestrating brazen abduction schemes from vehicles bearing official number plates.

He shot to national fame as the whistle-blower who exposed the looting of COVID-19 funds at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA), appearing in a dramatic TV exposé that shook the nation.

Agutu’s double life came into sharp focus in September 2020 when detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations swooped in on the man who had positioned himself as the director of a supposed “government department”, Network Action Against Corruption (NAAC).

Alongside his personal assistant, Alex Mutua Mutuku and driver Ken Kimathi Gicovi, he was accused of orchestrating the abduction of Vijay Patel, the proprietor of Hytech Investment Shop located along Kombo Munyiri Road in Nairobi.

According to court documents, the syndicate first struck on September 25, 2020, when they stormed Patel’s offices, introducing themselves as officers from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The impostors demanded a Sh2 million bribe, claiming they could help Patel reduce his tax obligations to the KRA. When the businessman could not raise the amount immediately, the gang confiscated his laptop and left.

Three days later, the nightmare intensified. The suspects returned, abducted Patel and bundled him into a vehicle bearing government number plates.

They drove him to Lutheran House along Nyerere Road, where he was forced to contact family members to raise the money.

After managing to collect Sh500,000, the suspects escorted him to his Westlands residence, took the cash and released him.

Investigations revealed that the registration number GKB 070B, which the gang had displayed on their Toyota Prado, actually belonged to a Land Rover Discovery attached to the Judiciary. The vehicle they were using was a civilian car with registration KCV 788Y belonging to Viewscape Tours and Car Hire.

Upon searching Agutu’s premises, investigators recovered a forged staff card of the Office of the President, Interior Ministry, bearing number 8338 and issued in his name.

He also faced charges of forging work ticket number P495906 for an official government vehicle. He was charged in court and granted Sh100,000 bail.

Investigators later discovered that he had been arrested in September 2017 while posing as a Senior Superintendent of Police attached to the Criminal Investigations Division.