A prosecution witness left many stunned when she narrated in court how millions of money was paid to a fake Canadian Embassy official. Lydia Nyagala who is a former employee at Golden Key Travel Consultants Limited narrated that the fake official, Brian Obare, received up to Sh82 million.
Apparently, the money was paid to Obare between March 2022 and November 2023 to facilitate the processing and issuance of Canadian visas.
Ms Nyagala told the court that she first met Obare at Embassy House in Nairobi. Obare had been introduced to their firm as a counsellor who was attached to the Canadian Embassy.
After the meetup, Golden Key and Obare entered into an arrangement. Through this arrangement, Golden Key would collect money from visa applicants and then remit it to Obare for processing.
Ms Nyagala told the court that they agreed that each client would pay a deposit of Sh124,500 and a total of Sh450,000 per visa application.
After this meet up, interactions that followed thereafter were largely through WhatsApp.
Golden Key then went on to collect payments from unsuspecting visa applicants, passports, and supporting documents that included ID cards, academic certificates, birth certificates, digital photos, medical certificates, vaccination records, and police clearance reports (Good Conduct). These documents were then handed over to Obare for processing.
Having collected passports, Ms Nyagala told the court that Obare produced documents for biometrics, and demanded that clients make the full payments before he could release the passports.
She went on to tell the court that after payments were made, none of the applicants ever successfully made it to Canada. Many never went past the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), others were denied boarding, and still, others were deported at Bole International Airport while trying to transit through Ethiopia.
“Some clients were arrested and advised to contact the Canadian Embassy directly,” Ms Nyagala told the court.
She added that when they contacted Obare, he told them to ask the clients to pay an additional Sh50,000 per passport. He claimed that he knew someone at the airport who could facilitate their travel to Canada.
Ms Nyagala said that they tried to contact the embassy but were unable to reach them. However, one of their clients successfully sent an inquiry to the embassy with her visa and was told that the visa was fake.
She noted that altogether, they paid Obare approximately Sh82 million but were only able to physically account for Sh51.2 million which is supported by receipts and transaction records that have been produced before court.
Obare has however denied all these allegations.
A statement on the arrest of Obare by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations shows that he was arrested in Ongata Rongai town by detectives drawn from the DCI Nairobi Regional Headquarters.
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