Five people, one of whom is an active police officer, have been taken into custody by Kitui County police for allegedly posing as Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers.
The group, which consisted of four men and a woman, was caught trying to blackmail the County’s Director of Revenue Collection.
According to reports, the suspects stormed into the Director’s office pretending to be carrying out a crackdown on dishonest county officials. Then, they brought the director to her home and claimed that there were significant quantities of stolen county funds hidden there.
The Director became suspicious of the five and reported the incident to the police, who quickly arrived and took the culprits into custody.
Officers discovered that the suspects had EACC staff badges with the title “CEO” on them when they questioned them, according to Kitui Central Police OCPD Peter Karanja.
“We sent our officers and when they met the purported anti-graft watchdog officers, they were somehow suspicious. They brought them to the Station and we were able to establish that the badges they had were all reading CEO of the EACC,” Karanja said .
Since then, Karanja has made contact with the Eastern Regional Manager of the EACC in order to confirm the identification of the suspects still being held at the Kitui Central Police Station.
“We have contacted the Eastern Regional regional manager who is sending his team to come and verify whether these are genuine employees of the EACC,” he stated.
“We are holding the five suspects and are still processing them.”
The OCPD also asked Kitui locals to keep an eye out and report any incidents of anyone posing as government officials.
