By TOM MOSOBA tmosoba@tz.nationmedia.com ( email the author)
Posted Sunday, February 24 2013 at 00:30
Posted Sunday, February 24 2013 at 00:30
In Summary
- It was, however, difficult to independently verify whether politicians have indeed used fake money to bribe gullible voters in their effort to win support.
The campaign landscape could be awash in fake shilling notes as a well-heeled cartel of money printers in Nairobi report brisk business in the home stretch to the March 4 General Election.
The crooks printed fake Sh1,000, Sh500 and Sh200 notes for an undercoverSunday Nation team and bragged how they have received many printing orders in the last few weeks from clients they claimed were fronting for unnamed politicians.
It was, however, difficult to independently verify whether politicians have indeed used fake money to bribe gullible voters in their effort to win support.
But printing fake currency is not a new phenomenon in the country, and according to several reports, the trend usually peaks every election year.
A former assistant minister and MP for Gatundu North, Mr Patrick Muiruri, narrated in court in 2011 how he had lost Sh2.1 million to fraudsters in a similar scheme during the 2007 elections.
They had reportedly promised to print for him Sh30 million in genuine legal tender.
During the same year, at least one political party revealed that candidates seeking clearance to run for various seats had paid in over Sh200,000 in fake currency notes in Nairobi and Mombasa.
A week ago, Nairobi Metropolitan minister Jamleck Kamau was forced to deny claims he was dishing out fake money.
The minister reported at Kigumo police station an incident where fake money wrapped in an envelope bearing his ministry’s logo was given to his supporters at a campaign rally.
Mr Kamau accused his rivals for the Kigumo parliamentary seat of issuing the fake money in a smear campaign against him.
The minister protested that the police had not arrested the culprits who he said were known. Some Sh44,000 in Sh200 and Sh1,000 notes was handed over to the local police for investigation.
Police have also recently arrested several suspects with millions of shillings in fake shilling notes in incidents that suggest the illegal business has been thriving this election year.
The latest was in Kajiado where three suspects were arrested with one million shillings in fake currency that they wanted to sell for Sh450,000 to undercover policemen.
In Nairobi, investigations by the Sunday Nation revealed that the cartels behind the illegal activity were actively in business.
We made contact last week and struck a deal with a member of the cartel operating in the River Road area to print one million shillings.
“We have recorded booming business lately thanks to the ongoing political campaigns. Work is piling up and an order like yours would require two or three working days to deliver,” explained the middleman.
The man said he was unable to approximate how much money had been printed for the purported election campaigns so far.
“It is in terms of millions if I count from November last year. We get clients with as little as Sh10,000, but the highest we have done is Sh5 million in February for one client,” said our source whom we met through a student.
The cartel works in secret and only agrees to meet potential clients or their agents through trusted pointmen they have dealt with in the past – in our case the student. The college man receives a cut upon landing a successful deal.
According to the student, who we cannot name, the fake money printers are well known to some people in government and law enforcement agencies.
“They work in cahoots with policemen to gain protection against harassment. The dealers also collude with law enforcers to fleece gullible would-be clients, especially women,” said the student.
We first met our man in Thika town. He would later drive us to the Ngara area of Nairobi from where he made several calls to fix us a quick printing deal in order “to beat the few days remaining before voting day”. We had pitched the idea for raising campaign money to pay voters.
For about Sh400,000 genuine money, he said we could print the equivalent of Sh500,000 in fake Sh500 notes, Sh300,000 in fake Sh200 denomination and the balance of Sh200,000 in the Sh1,000 category.
“The Sh200 note is in high demand right now as it is easier to dish out to campaign crowds,” he said.
But first we demanded to be shown samples of the said notes before any deal could be clinched.
He then drove into an area popularly known as Matumbo along Kweria Road in the bustling business section of River Road. Here, we were ushered into an eatery as the middleman disappeared into one of the surrounding buildings.
After 20 or so minutes, he returned with three sets of crisp sample notes of the three denominations, which we paid for. The Sh1,000 fake note is sold for Sh400 a piece and drops depending on the size of the printing order.
The Sh500 note costs Sh150 while the Sh200 note sells for Sh80. The notes bore a strong resemblance to the genuine ones and are purported to have been printed in June 2005 and April 2006.
The notes were, however, quickly established to be fake when taken through a currency counting machine that has features to detect fake notes.
Record amounts of fake currency were recovered between 2011 and 2012. It is believed the bulk of the fake money targets bulk market traders dealing in livestock, cereals and cross-border business.
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