Six Immigration staff, 9 brokers arrested for soliciting bribes to issue passports at Nyayo House

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested 15 people on allegations of soliciting bribes from citizens in order to facilitate the issuance of passports at Nyayo House in Nairobi.

This comes following a directive from Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki that followed public outcry, after which he visited the facility and termed it “a crime scene” vowing to clean it up.

The sleuths, drawn from DCI’s Transnational Organized Crime unit, said the 15 who were nabbed include 6 Department of Immigration Services staff and 9 suspected brokers.

They added that a manhunt for more suspects who fled the scene upon getting wind of the operation is still underway and that they will soon be brought to book.

“In the classic case of grand corruption, members of the public and foreigners seeking passports and work permits respectively have been forced to part with huge sums of money to access services, after the rogue officials took advantage of a temporary system downtime to satisfy their sheer greed for extras,” DCI noted in a statement.

“The crooked officials went ahead to plant brokers around the facility, to entice and collect funds from desperate applicants with emergency cases, as well as persons of means who were able to influence special treatment at the expense of ordinary Kenyans who procedurally tendered their applications.”

The investigative agency said the operation conducted on Monday, after “meticulous forensic analysis and profiling,” initially led to the arrest of four staff – including an intern – and one broker.

The staff were Nicodemus Muide, Aloise Gitonga Kiura, Stephen Makokha, and intern Esther Ogega Nyambura aka Pauline Nyangara Ogega, while the broker was Mohamud Khalif Maalim.

“Confronted by the facts of the allegations laid against him, Mr Muide unfortunately fell ill and was rushed to AAR Hospital along Kiambu Road where he was diagnosed with heart attack and high sugar levels,” DCI stated.

“He was released on bail to continue with treatment as detectives sought custodial orders for the rest of the suspects at Kahawa Law Courts to complete investigations. The suspect has since recuperated.”

The sleuths then carried out another operation and arrested staff member Joseph Ireri Karani, and eight brokers namely; Abdullahi Abdirahman Ali, Bashir Ore Ibrahim, Damaris Kwamboka Bosire, Charles Mucheru Mwangi, George Karancha Obare, Domiciano Makori Oketch, Isaac Mbulo and Luke Lang’at.

The detectives went ahead to note that investigations have since revealed evidence of a money trail to the immigration officers and their proxies which they intend to avail during prosecution of the suspects.

The arrest of the 15 comes weeks after four other suspects were arrested on August 25,2023 for soliciting for bribes in the issuance of the passports.