Detectives drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Friday, October 6, arrested a former member of parliament candidate in connection to a Ksh 13 million gold scam.
According to a statement issued by the DCI, Jonathan Opande, who unsuccessfully vied for the Nyakach Parliamentary seat in 2022, was planning to fly to Kisumu at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Unknown to him, DCI sleuths who had been tracking him for months were on his trail and aware of his planned trip to Kisumu.
In a well calculated move, the detectives pounced on the suspect and ejected him from the plane for further processing.
“Opande also known as Chairman/Kiongozi was ejected from a Kisumu-bound KQ flight yesterday afternoon,” the statement read in part.
As per the statement, Opande had been on the run since April when two Thai nationals filed a complaint at the Thai Embassy in Nairobi about a man posing as a CEO of a company who conned them Ksh 13 million.
How Opande met the victims
The two foreigners had, reportedly, traveled to Kenya to seal a gold deal after an introduction from one of Opande’s friends who is now an accomplice in the case.
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Oblivious of the fate awaiting them, the duo went on to hand over Ksh 13 million to Opande who DCI notes had agreed to supply them with gold.
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However, the former MP candidate failed to honor his part of the deal, making the Thai duo his latest victims.
“The suspect posing as the CEO of Blu Afrique LTD obtained the money from them in the pretext that he would supply them gold whose quantity was not immediately established,” the statement read in part.
Subsequently, the DCI launched investigations to establish the details of the gold deal gone bad for the Thai nationals.
All this time, Opande engaged detectives in a cat and mouse game until on Friday when he was finally nabbed.
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DCI raid offices
According to DCI, the politician and businessman was held at the Buru Buru Police Station waiting to be arraigned in court on Monday.
The DCI also discovered Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) export seals and a dust coat branded Ministry of Mining and digital weighing scales among other crucial exhibits after raiding his office in Lavington.
His arrest came against the backdrop of heightened gold scam cases in Nairobi.
In September, DCI operatives stormed a building in Ruaraka and arrested over ten suspects in connection to a Ksh1 billion gold scam syndicate.
The two cases represent just a fraction of the several gold scams reported in Kenya, painting a picture of the deeply entrenched vice in the country.
