Nyayo Staff Suffers Heart Attack During DCI Raid

A suspected arrested alongside 14 others during a raid of Nyayo House on Monday by sleuths from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) suffered a heart attack at the scene.

In a statement on Thursday night, DCI indicated that its detectives from the Transnational Organised Crime detectives raided the Department of Immigration Services and arrested the individuals in connection with the passport issuance corruption scandal.

The authorities tracked down the individuals for days carrying out forensic analysis and profiling of the identified suspects before striking on Monday.

In the first raid, four staff and a broker were whisked away for interrogation.

“Confronted by the facts of the allegations laid against him, (a suspect) unfortunately fell ill and was rushed to AAR Hospital along Kiambu Road where he was diagnosed with heart attack and high sugar levels,” read the statement in part.

“He was released on bail to continue with treatment as detectives sought custodial orders for the rest of the suspects at Kahawa Law Courts to complete investigations. The suspect has since recuperated.”

Later that day, the detectives conducted other raids at Nyayo House and the Central Business District where another staff member and eight brokers were taken in for questioning.

The 15 were accused of soliciting huge sums of money from individuals seeking passports and work permits before assisting them.

In the latest instance, the suspects took advantage of a temporary system downtime to satisfy their sheer greed for extras.

“The crooked officials went ahead to plant brokers around the facility, to entice and collect funds from desperate applicants with emergency cases, as well as persons of means who were able to influence special treatment at the expense of ordinary Kenyans who procedurally tendered their applications,” added the statement.

“A trail of transactions by the suspects on their mobile money and bank accounts indicating how money was remitted to the immigration officers and their proxies has since been obtained, with the view of presenting water-tight evidence during prosecution.”

The arrest came weeks after Interior CS Kithure Kindiki made impromptu visits to Nyayo House and other Immigration offices in an effort to streamline the activities.

In the first raid, four individuals were arrested for idling around and frustrating passport seekers. Soon after, a total of over 20,000 passport applications that had stalled were quickly processed and their applicants were directed to pick them up.

“We will clean up this place from corruption cartels on anyone asking for bribes here. We will arrest and prosecute them. We have already made some arrests and I want to make it clear that this space is not available for corruption,” Kindiki declared at the time.