Nairobi News

Last week, detectives arrested two people they believed to be a part of a criminal ring behind car thefts at Thika Road Mall (TRM), Garden City Mall and its environs.

While making public the arrests, the police said the two suspects – Kelvin Mokaya and Moses Alimlim – often pose as gym members and then access the changing rooms, steal car keys before driving away with stolen vehicles.

LOST WALLET

The two where later arraigned in court.

But the whole incident has now taken a new twist after it emerged that one of the suspects used an identification card he had stolen from the said gym and identified himself as Kelvin Mokaya.

Apparently, the police had caught their man, but fell for his false identification.

Mr Mokaya is a former employee of NTV and is also a member of the gym located at TRM.

Speaking to Nairobi News Mokaya narrated how he recently lost his wallet which contained all his documents and his mobile phone at the gym.

He reported the matter at Kasarani Police Station on the same day and recorded a statement (OB No. 100/5/9/19).

According to Mokaya, he did not give much thought about it and because he was taking a short vacation, he called Safaricom and told them to deactivate his number just in case the thieves use his number because they had all his documents.

IDENTITY FRAUD

He only found out that using his names had been arrested a few days later on social media after friends started tagging him because no one could reach him.

After he returned to Nairobi, he went straight to Kasarani Police Station and asked about the progress of his case while at the same time inquiring about the latest development of a suspect who had used his stolen ID to identify himself.

An investigator at the police station, who is handling his case, said she was following up on the matter, this is even after Mokaya produced his passport to show that he was the same person on the ID and everything matched.

“While I’m not aware of the resemblance between the suspect and I, I feel that this is a case of incompetence within the police service as the investigating team did not take their time to verify if indeed the suspect was who he claims to be,” said Mokaya.

He wonders why the police did not take their time to go through the OB, especially when several claims of theft had been filed from the same location.

“Had they taken their time to check the reports from the scene where the arrest was made, they would have flagged this as case of identity fraud,” he added.

The suspect was arraigned at Makadara Law Court on September 11, 2019 under the same name to take a plea and was granted a cash bail of Sh20,000.

TAKEN TO COURT

Luckily he was yet to be released by the time Mokaya reported the matter.

Mokaya says almost a week after he presented himself to the Kasarani Police Station, only the court has given a production order for the suspect to be taken back to the police station for them to prepare fresh charges before taking him to court.

He adds that the police have been dragging their feet on this matter and are yet to take even his statement.

“I have spent the last five days visiting the station and requesting them to take my statement and also check the documents in possession of the suspect to verify if they are mine but this is yet to happen,” he says.

According to Mokaya, all he wants is to have his name cleared in the matter.

“I therefore call upon the relevant authorities to look into this matter so that is expedited and that I may be cleared to go back to my normal life,” he says.

Kasarani police are yet to get back to us on our inquiries on Mr Mukaya’s case.