Court orders man to refund Sh12m allegedly swindled from job seeker

An Eldoret court has directed Joseph Kipkoech Keino, who is accused of defrauding 18 job seekers of more than Sh12 million, to start the process of refunding them their money by September 29, 2025.

Mr Keino is said to have received the money from the victims, including university and college students and taxi operators, pretending that he was in a position to secure them well-paying jobs in Australia.

He enticed his victims with hotel work abroad, where they were to serve as servicemen and servicewomen with an alleged monthly salary of Sh900,000 each, including free food and accommodation.

Principal Magistrate Cherono Kesse warned the suspect that failure to comply with her order  would result in the cancellation of his Sh 3 million bonds with immediate effect.

She directed the accused person to deposit the first installment of Sh 150,000 before the end of September to avoid being sent to prison.

“This should be a warning to those still involved in such dirty deals. If you want to save yourself, you can just start paying as little as Sh 20,000 as a sign of goodwill. It is not a must that you start the process of refunding by paying a huge amount of money; what these people want is commitment,” Kesse said.

She asked the accused person to appear before her court on October 6 to confirm whether her orders have been complied with or not.

Earlier on, the accused had asked the court to grant him more time to look for money to refund his clients, assuring that they should have no cause for worry.

“Your honor, this is the only time I have appeared in court. I have never been accused of wrong, but kindly I ask for more time to plan how I will refund the money I took from my client in the botched overseas job deal, which did not go as planned. Something went wrong somewhere, but let me promise, I will clear them soon," said Keino.

The accused, accompanied by those still at large, are said to have obtained by pretense more than sh12 million from the victims.

The charge sheet stated that he obtained the money from the 18 victims on diverse dates between March and July 2024.

Court documents indicate that he obtained between Sh300,000 and Sh1.8 million from each victim with a promise of helping them to secure jobs as hotel workers in Australia.

The accused first appeared in court in September 2024, denied the charge, and was released on a Sh3 million bond with a surety of a similar amount.