Court told how Canadian embassy impostor defrauded Sh51million in visa scam
A Nairobi court has heard details of an elaborate visa fraud scheme in which more than Sh51 million was allegedly paid to a man accused of posing as a Canadian Embassy official, leaving dozens of aspiring travellers stranded, arrested, or turned back while in transit.
Testifying before Milimani trial magistrate Paul Mutai, Lidia Nyagala, a former employee of Golden Key Travel Consultants Limited, told the court that the company engaged the accused, Brian Reeves Obare, between March 2022 and November 2023 to facilitate Canadian visa applications for its clients.
Nyagala said Obare was introduced to the firm by Esnas Mboga, a friend of one of the company’s associates, and presented himself as a counsellor attached to the Canadian Embassy.
Nyagala testified that she first met Obare at Embassy House, where he claimed to be a consular official.
Under their arrangement, clients paid Golden Key Travel Consultants, which then forwarded the money to Obare. The agreed fee per applicant was Sh450,000, with an initial deposit of Sh124,500.
“We collected passports and supporting documents from clients, including identity cards, birth certificates, academic papers, digital photos, police clearances, and vaccination certificates. All these were forwarded to Obare along with payments,” Nyagala said.
She explained that clients submitted passports and supporting documents, including national identity cards, birth certificates, academic certificates, police clearance forms, vaccination records, and digital photographs. These documents, together with payments, were allegedly forwarded to Obare. Communication with him was largely conducted through phone calls and WhatsApp messages.
Nyagala told the court that Obare would send documents purportedly required for biometric processing before demanding full payment. Fewer than 50 passports were ultimately submitted, but none of the applicants successfully travelled to Canada. Instead, some clients were arrested at airports, others were denied boarding, while several were returned to Kenya from transit points such as Addis Ababa and Dubai.
She further testified that Obare later demanded an additional Sh50,000 per client, claiming he had contacts at airports who could facilitate departures. Despite the extra payments, the visas were allegedly cancelled.
Efforts by the company to verify Obare’s credentials with the Canadian Embassy were unsuccessful. Investigations later established that he had never worked for any embassy and that none of the visas issued were valid.
On the financial trail, Nyagala said payments were made to bank accounts and mobile money numbers provided by the accused. While total collections were estimated at about Sh82 million, the company could only account for Sh51.2 million due to missing records. She said Golden Key Travel Consultants has since refunded approximately Sh34 million to affected clients.
Obare is represented by lawyer Lewis Kanyoko and faces three charges: obtaining money by false pretences, acquisition of proceeds of crime linked to a Land Rover Discovery, and personation for allegedly posing as a Canadian consular official.
During cross-examination, the defence challenged Nyagala on her employment status, record-keeping, and the accuracy of the financial figures presented.
