Coast residents lose money to con woman in jobs scam

Pain was all over her face.

Overwhelmed by deep thoughts, Ms Jumwa Kadenge, a mango vendor in Mombasa was seated outside Urban Police Station’s gate.

The 45-year-old mother of six was trying to figure it out how she would get back her Sh32,000 that was she was swindled by a suspected con woman identified by police as Shuweikha Ali.

Ms Kadenge is among 74 people who were allegedly conned by the woman with a promise of getting them visas to travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Ms Ali allegedly conned her unsuspected victims at least Sh600,000.

JOBLESS YOUTH

Majority are desperate and unemployed youth from different parts of Mombasa, Kilifi and Taita Taveta counties.

“I paid Sh16,000 to a woman called Naima and another one known as Shuweikha. It is Naima who connected me to Shuweikha who promised to get my son a job in Abu Dhabi. I connected my sister to them as well who also paid another Sh16,000,” said Ms Kadenge.

Ms Kadenge took a loan from a merry-go-round group that she has now been forced to pay.

She said she was promised that her son would travel in a week’s time when she gave out the money.

NOTHING HAPPENED

“But it is now two months since I the woman promised that my son would travel but to date nothing has happened,” said Ms Kadenge.

Another victim, Mohammed Abdulswamad, together with his two brothers, were tricked to pay Sh24 000 and promised they would secure jobs as security guards and drivers in the Middle East.

Mr Abdulswamad said each of them paid Sh8,000 which Ms Ali said was for medical check-ups, to secure a yellow card and for labour.

“She said Sh5,000 was for medical checks which we did at Vision Medical Centre and we gave her Sh2,000 for the alleged yellow card and Sh1,000 as labour charges. She said she will get us free visas and we trusted her only for us to learn later that we had been conned,” said Mr Abdulswamad.

None of them was given results of their medical check-ups.

LINK

Many of the young people were linked to the woman by a Mr Murad Mohammed.

Mr Mohammed Wednesday led at least 30 youth to Urban Police Station where the suspected con woman was being held in a bid to get back their money.

“A majority of the victims are blaming me thinking that I had duped them and that’s why I reported the matter to Central Police Station so that action can be taken,” said Mr Mohammed.

REPORTED

The matter was reported under OB Number 101/19/08/2019.

Mr Mohammed reported the matter after an agreement entered with the woman and the victims was not fulfilled.

They had on July 17 agreed that Ms Ali would refund their money if she failed to secure them the promised jobs.

Instead, after time for fulfilling their agreement lapsed, the woman instead started using abusive language on the victims through a WhatsApp group that they had formed to address their matter.

On Wednesday, the suspect presented herself to the DCI officers for interrogations accompanied by her lawyer.

Mombasa Urban DCI boss Anthony Muriithi confirmed that the suspect was in their custody, adding that the matter is still under investigations.