Sh10 million! This is the mind-boggling amount that Maureen Kamau was conned in a strange Canada job scam in Nairobi. Her ordeal started in 2023, about six months after she returned to Kenya from Thailand where she had escaped human trafficking by a whisker.
“I had traveled to Thailand for work as a marketer but upon arrival in Thailand, I realized that I had been scammed into a human trafficking ring together with a few other Kenyans,” she said in an interview with local media house Tuko Kenya.
Six months after returning, one of her friends, Charleen, called her and asked her if she would be interested in going to work as a nurse aide in Canada. Charleen claimed that she was due to travel to Canada for work as a nurse aide but her traveling partner was in Moyale. Charleeen claimed that it was past due the time her partner was supposed to come back to make the journey and she needed someone to fill up the vacancy on short notice.
The cost of traveling was quoted at Sh400,000. Maureen was informed that she needed a valid passport and vaccinations. She was told that she would be leaving for Canada with a Kenyan patient. She was connected with a lady known as Lucy who was allegedly organizing the journey.
Maureen was asked to send a registration fee of Sh63,000 which was to cater for registration and two sets of uniforms. She was told that this amount would be deducted from the quoted figure of Sh400,000. “I had Sh400,000 in a fixed bank account and Sh70,000 in my M-Pesa. I applied to the bank to have the money in my fixed account moved to my current account from where I would transfer to Lucy,” says Maureen.
Alarmingly, immediately she sent Sh63,000, Lucy switched her phone for a month. “I asked Charlene why her phone was off and she said that Lucy worked at Kenyatta National Hospital and often traveled outside the country for work,” she says.
Lucy would allege that she was in Uganda, sometimes in Congo, and could not be able to pick calls. Around this time, she inquired if the Charleen’s original partner had returned from Moyale. She was told that the original partner, Eunice, had returned and they would all be traveling to Canada.
Maureen says that when Lucy reappeared after a month, she said that she was going to book an interview for her at Kenyatta National Hospital. The interview was allegedly to assess her qualifications as a nurse aide. On the interview date, Lucy claimed that something had come up and the interview would be conducted online.
Alarmingly, Lucy claimed that she was the one who would conduct the interview on behalf of a panel at Kenyatta who would later listen to the recorded interview and make a decision. A few weeks later, Maureen was informed that she had passed the interview and could now proceed to the next stages of her journey.
She then sent tens of thousands of money to pay for vaccinations. She had been told that she needed vaccinations against meningitis, cholera, typhoid, Hepatitis A and B, and flu.
“I asked Lucy where I would take these vaccinations and she said that I should send the money to her M-Pesa and she would give instructions on the place and date when I would take the vaccines,” says Maureen.
“I sent Sh70,000, then sent Sh150,000, the sent Sh200,000 all for vaccines. I was then asked to go to Kenyatta for vaccinations. I arrived ten minutes late and Lucy said that I couldn’t take the vaccines because they are given in pairs and I was alone. I waited at KNH for three hours in hope that I could get a partner to take the vaccines with in vain.”
She went back to town. While in town, Lucy told her to go to Lemuma Chemist in town. She was told to go to the immunization section and give one of the attendees the phone and Lucy would issue instructions on the type of vaccines she needed.
By this time, she had spent Sh300,000. Lucy demanded for more money and she sent it without questions. At one point, she sent Sh100,000 to allegedly pay for the English exam known as IELTS.
Nairobi agents conning Kenyans up to Sh. 600,000 for Canadian visit visas
The transfers escalated and she started sending hundreds of thousands. In some days, she would send between Sh500,000 to 750,000. Maureen says that she was conned that these amounts were to cater for her accommodation in Canada and her insurance.
She says that her family took bank loans to fund the transfers and borrowed top ups from relatives. By the end of her ordeal, she had sent Sh10 million to Lucy. Amidst sending all these funds, Lucy would make disappearances and switch her phone off, then reappear with a brand new set of lies.
Alarmingly, despite sending all these funds, her biometrics had not been captured at the VFS offices. Her visa application had also not been made.
After exhausting all sources of money available to her, Maureen demanded to know when she would be traveling. “Lucy called and said oh, come to town and I am going to give you directions on where you are going to meet with the rest of the team traveling to Canada,” she says. “After arriving in town, Lucy switched her phone off. She then switched on again and called at around 4pm. She told me I needed to go to the Canadian High Commission to get my visa.”
Maureen told her that she thought she was supposed to go and get her visa at the VFS biometrics centre. However, Lucy told her that her all her details had already been captured and she instead needed to go to the Canadian High Commission.
“I arrived at the High Commission at 6pm. The security guards asked me what I was doing there. I explained and shock on me, they told me that I had been conned and nothing of the sort took place there,” says Maureen.
“I called Lucy and Charleen and they said that the guards are often changed and so the ones I met at the gate were probably new.”
Weeks later, after her family going broke, Maureen Kamau decided to pull the plug on her quest. “I called Lucy and told her that we were struggling I could no longer sustain the payments. I needed her to refund me the money.”
Instead of getting a refund, Lucy threatened her and her family that they would be kidnapped, chopped into pieces and dumped in gunny bags if they dared to go public with the issue or report to the police.
By November 2023, Maureen and her family were now facing the harsh reality that they had been conned. Two months later, on January 9, she reported the issue at Kiambu Police Station and produced receipts with all the mobile transactions she had made.
She wrote a statement and was directed to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. The investigations began and the DCI made a submission of inquiry to Kenyatta National Hospital to find out if Lucy was an employee there. It turned out that she was not, and had only been arranging meetings with Lucy at KNH in order to hoodwink her.
Two ladies whose mobile lines had received part of the money that Maureen Kamau had been scammed were arrested. However, they were then released on a cash bail of Sh70,000 and were asked to be reporting to the police every two weeks.
However, the main culprit in the scam, Lucy, and her friend Charleen are yet to be arrested. As she fights to survive and recover from the loss of Sh10 million, a broken Maureen Kamau prays that she may find justice. She prays that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations will break her case and bring those who scammed her to justice.
She also prays that she may find a pro bono lawyer who can hold her hand as she fights to find justice. “I am broke. I am barely survive. My family is broke. We are in debts. I know at some point I will need a lawyer but I don’t even know how I can afford one when I am barely surviving,” she says amidst tears.
