The woman left Nairobi last week and went to her boyfriend's house in Kisumu /FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 16 – Police have arrested a woman who faked her own kidnapping and solicited Sh200,000 as ransom from her friends and relatives.
The woman left Embakasi in Nairobi last week and went to her boyfriend’s house in Kisumu from where she called her relatives, claiming she had been abducted.
The suspect lied to her family and friends that she had been kidnapped and they came and reported to us; that is when the search for her was mounted,” Embakasi divisional police chief Akelo Odhiambo said.
Police tracked down the 30-year-old woman to Kisumu on Saturday through the mobile phone she used to solicit the ‘ransom’ but she managed to escape, leaving her stunned boyfriend who was arrested.
Officers deployed to search for her detained and questioned the boyfriend before they decided to let him free on realising he was not involved in the scheme.
The suspect was pursued to Nairobi where she was arrested on Monday.
Police said they intend to charge her for giving false information and demanding money with menace.
She will definitely face charges in court,” Akelo said.
Police said some of her friends and relatives had sent an unknown amount of money to her.
This amounts to fraud… she conned people and lied to the police. It is not acceptable at all,” one police officer pursuing the case said.
Police however, said it was not the first time they were dealing with a case of that nature.
Some people become more creative whenever they are broke, some of them go to extremes such as these ones,” another police officer said.
A senior police officer at the Nairobi Area Provincial Police headquarters said they had previously dealt with bizarre cases including one where a man overslept at his girlfriend’s house and lied to his wife that he had been kidnapped.
The reason does not matter in this case, as long as it borders on a criminal offence, one has to face the law,” the officer said.
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