How I got scammed by 'beggar' in Embakasi: Resident's tale of being conned in city

If you are like Michael Odhiambo, the sight of a helpless child might have evoked the humanity in you and made you give a sizeable amount of money to these women to help get their children food to eat.

However, it has emerged that some of the women posing as helpless beggars on the streets are actually cons.

While some do not live on the streets and only leave their homes to go to the 'work' of begging every morning, others altogether pretend to be carrying babies in blankets, while in actual essence, wrapped underneath those blankets are clothes - no baby there. But because children evoke the human side of many, these cons use them as bait.

Odhiambo, a resident of Embakasi, narrated to Wananchi Reporting, how he fell prey to a con, posing as a bigger with a child.

"The woman pretends to be abled differently and carries her daughter on her back daily as she begs for help. She stations her herself in different places and operates in Embakasi most of the time," he said. 

Odhiambo says he learnt he had been conned after offering the woman financial support, only to be alerted that she was able but masquerading as a beggar.

“Mimi nilimpea kidogo yenye nilikuwa nayo juu ya huruma," he said.

Odhiambo was later informed that the woman was a notorious con.

"The woman moves here station every so often. She collects money from people throughout the day until she closes for the day. You will see her crawling and sympathise until you realise it is a scam," he said.

Odhiambo narrated how he boarded the same bus with her to town on one evening.

"Upon alighting, she crawled for some distance and then got up and boarded another vehicle heading to Kibera," he says.

Odhiambo said such cases make it difficult for many to help so-called beggars, because one can never be certain of who genuinely needs help.

As narrated to Janet Akinyi