DCI: Missing Nairobi woman faked kidnapping, eloped with lover to extort money from family

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested three people, two women and a man in connection with a  fake-kidnapping. 

According to a police record obtained by Citizen Digital, on September 17, a married woman named Jane Wairimu eloped with her younger lover, Joseph Mogire, leaving her distressed husband terrified and confused.

 “Jane Wairimu Ndung’u disappeared last Friday, September 17, leaving her husband Brian Mutuku worried on her whereabouts,” a police report by the DCI reads. 

“That night as he was pondering his next move, a distraught Mutuku received a call from his wife who sounded panic stricken, claiming to have been kidnapped by unknown people who were demanding Sh200,000 as ransom,” 

She claimed to have been kidnapped in the middle of the city while walking down Loita Street in Nairobi, according to detectives.

“The worried husband immediately filed a missing person’s report at DCI Embakasi. However, as the detectives were pursuing the suspects, Wairimu’s kin and the husband raised Sh17,000 and sent it to the alleged kidnappers,” the police report says. 

Wairimu and her partner, a cab driver, were allegedly living in the cabbie’s single-roomed house in Malaa, savoring the elusive “soft life,” according to detectives.

Her family grew impatient at home, according to cops, and started a WhatsApp group to raise funds to obtain her release.

“A further Sh40,000 was sent on Monday and the two traveled from Malaa to Mtito-a-Ndei to withdraw the money, ostensibly to distract our eagle eyed detective who were on their trail.,” the police said on Thursday. 

However, before the two could be apprehended by police, a third party entered the picture: the cab driver’s girlfriend, a 21-year-old JKUAT student.

“The alleged kidnapper Richard Mogire had promised his 21-year-old girlfriend a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology that he would take her out over the weekend,” the detectives said. 

“The girlfriend kept calling and sending him messages asking him why he had stood her up. Mogire tried to explain that he would make it up to her this coming weekend but she would hear none of it and demanded that he picks her up, lest she leaves him.” 

According to the police, Mogire devised a new strategy, changing his car to avoid suspicion and picking up his lovestruck main lover from the Juja-based university and accompanying her to the one-roomed residence where he had been staying with Wairimu since her feigned disappearance.

The three had been staying together in the one-roomed home since Monday, according to detectives, until they were captured in Sagana on Wednesday afternoon.

Detectives are baffled as to how Mogire persuaded his girlfriend to stay and play ball despite the fact that she was not a part of the original plot.

After her arrest, Wairimu explained that she had forced her disappearance to get away from creditors, who were on her neck since she lost her job. 

 “The three are currently cooling their heels at Embakasi police station, being processed for arraignment in  court on Friday.” the detectives added.