Feature and photos by Eunice Njoki, the founder and director of Maktaba Mashinani Foundation Kenya.
“When in the spotlight, you will be seen by just about anyone. This includes thugs and conmen. It’s in the process of networking and fundraising for my foundation Maktaba Mashinani Foundation (MMF) that I nearly fell into a conman’s trap.
I was first contacted by a man called Royce Jobsen who claimed that he and his colleagues lived in the US. He had seen our concept and was interested in partnering with us. He claimed that he was from Relief International, a charity organization that is headquartered in US.
We exchanged emails and he linked me with his colleague in their Kenyan office for follow up. We held a number of meetings with his Kenyan contact between June and December 2018, when we were to finalize on the funding process for my foundation.
As we inched closer to sealing the deal, we realized that we had been dealing with conmen who were out to fleece us hundreds of thousands. For a start, they wanted some Sh. 200,000 in form of facilitation fee.
When the pay was demanded, I had someone call their headquarters for confirmation. For some reason, their authenticity was confirmed. We have now come to realize that the confirmation was faked. I decided to pay the facilitation fee in instalments.
I had just paid the first installment when I discovered that they were conmen. I reported to the police and we set up a trap for them at the Thika Road Mall.
I called the local officer whom I had been communicating with and informed him that the remaining facilitation fee amount was ready for collection. We agreed that he meets me at the TRM. The police pounced on him the moment he arrived.
However, a few hours later, he was bailed out by his colleagues who also returned the amount of money I had paid out. They also sent messages and called threatening me that I would suffer severe consequences.
These are just a clique of a bigger league of conmen. They might try to con people using your documents and even fundraise on behalf of your projects. Before you exchange any documents with them ask to see their offices, business cards and make sure they’re using a legit email address.
Call the numbers on the organization’s website, it might be costly but it will save you alot of pain in the end.
I also wish to state that nobody should claim to be fundraising on behalf of Maktaba Mashinani Foundation unless it’s through the contacts provided on our website which is maktabamashinani.org.
The contacts of the conmen are as follows:
[email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]
Their names are:
Royce Jobsen, Collins (Real name is Elisha – supposedly the Kenyan rep), Frank (Supposedly a field guy), Webster, and Hesbon Evalia.
One case of a Colonel Brian Afizar left me shocked. He will tell you he wants to invest in your project if you will help him build a school and children homes.
He works with a Ghanaian called Collins Touba who will fly from South Africa to come and supposedly start to work on your project. He will then require to move from where he was hosted after he flew in and he will borrow around 300 USD to move to a better place with a promise that you will get your money back when Brian sends it.
You will be told that the money will be sent as a package with UN immunity and it won’t be checked at any airport. Don’t be a victim.”