Kenya: Police officer arrested for identity theft and attempted extortion of revenue collector

Law enforcement agencies in Kitui County have arrested five individuals, including a serving police officer, for pretending to be agents of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The group, comprising four men and a woman, were arrested while attempting to extort the County Revenue Collection Director. The suspects barged into the Director’s office under the pretext of conducting an operation against corrupt officials. They later took her to her home, claiming that she was hiding large sums of embezzled money there.

Suspicious, the Director alerted the police who quickly intervened and apprehended the suspects. According to Peter Karanja, OCPD of Kitui Central, the suspects were wearing EACC officer badges with the title “CEO”.

“We sent our officers who on meeting these so-called anti-corruption officers had doubts. We took them to the police station and were able to establish that the badges they were all wearing read ‘CEO of EACC’,” Karanja told Citizen Digital.

Karanja contacted the EACC regional officer to verify the identity of the suspects, who remain in custody at the Kitui Central police station. “We have contacted the Eastern regional officer who is sending his team to verify whether these individuals are actually EACC employees,” he added.

The OCPD also urged Kitui residents to be vigilant and report anyone posing as government agents without being able to satisfactorily prove their identity.

“If individuals claim to be police officers without being able to properly identify themselves, please call the police or the DCI so that action can be taken,” he concluded.