A suspected fraudster was yesterday arraigned for allegedly conning a Nairobi businessman of Sh11 million in a fake rice supply deal.
Martin Shiamia Matchel, 31, appeared before a Nairobi court yesterday to face charges of conspiracy to defraud, stealing by agent, obtaining goods by false pretences and forgery of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) documents.
He however, pleaded not guilty to all four charges.
Detectives attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrested Matchel on Sunday at the Namanga border point as he was attempting to flee to neighbouring Tanzania.
He is said to have approached the businessman, Mohammed, disguising himself as a UNHCR agent in December last year offering introduce him to the U.N supplies system awarding him a fake tender to supply 1,680 bags of rice to U.N.
“The businessman had been awarded a fake tender to supply 1,680 bags of rice to the U.N agency, only to realise after one month that he had been defrauded by one of Nairobi’s ruthless racketeers, non other than 34-year-old Martin Shiamia Matchel. For those who do not know Matchel, he is a smooth operator with a knack for sweeping people’s accounts dry in fraudulent deals involving millions of shillings,” stated DCI.
Matchel who is not new to controversy has had previous run-ins with the law and is a frequent visitor to our courts. He has several pending fraud cases scattered across various courts across the country.
In December last year, Matchel approached a businessman known as Mohammed and offered to introduce him to the U.N supplies system, where upon successful assimilation he would be paid top dollar for supply of high-grade goods and services.
He posed as an agent of top decision makers in the U.N system and boasted of knowing his way around the corridors of U.N Nairobi offices, in Gigiri.
Matchel emphasized the urgency of the goods claiming the rice was required for relief distribution to hunger stricken refugees at a camp in South Sudan, prompting haste.
He however pointed out that the situation was getting inflamed by ‘conflict’ in Ethiopia further advising Mohammed to instead import the product from Tanzania at a cheaper price.
After running a few samples for quality control procedures, Mohamed then transferred a total of Ksh.11 million from his Equity bank account to an account belonging to Yazeed Rice Company, in Tanzania.
“To demonstrate his proficiency, he intimated to Mohamed that he was aware of a lucrative tender that was to be issued by the UNHCR to supply first grade Rice and he therefore asked him to submit his business profile to an email address purportedly belonging to the UNHCR and wait for the agency’s response,” read the statement.
After the consignment arrived in Kenya Mohammed was asked to wait for his payment for about a month as it was being processed. But in a call that would later shock him, he learnt on February 6, 2022, that the whole deal was a conspiracy of lies and that the rice went nowhere past Nairobi, and was instead being sold by rice vendors in local markets.
The now suspicious Mohammed went to U.N offices in Gigiri where he was informed that the documents in his possession were all fake and that no such tender had been issued by the agency.
Mohammed reported the case which led to Matchel’s arrest.
“Members of the public are cautioned to be wary of such fraudsters who have made away with millions of shillings from unsuspecting victims, while posing as U.N agents,” advised DCI.
