Mastermind Behind Theft and Sale of New Generation Passports Arrested in Nairobi

A Kenyan man suspected to be the mastermind behind the disappearance of new-generation passports from job recruitment agencies in Nairobi has been arrested.

30-year-old Stephen Obiero was apprehended on Friday by detectives based at the Directorate of Immigration Services.

The arrest of Obiero, who was found in possession of 22 stolen passports, followed a sudden high demand for the new-generation passports.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the passports are sold to West Africans who are in the country illegally at Sh22,000 each, according to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

“The detectives who had done their homework posed as pidgin speaking West Africans and lured the thug to a matatu along Mfangano street, where the transaction took place,” DCI says in a report.

“Unbeknownst to the thug, he was dealing with multilingual undercover agents speaking a mixture of Yoruba and broken English.”

Once the deal was sealed, Obiero was handcuffed and taken to Nairobi Central police station where he is being detained pending arraignment in court on Monday.

Most of the passports recovered from the suspect belong to young female Kenyans who had deposited them at recruitment agencies for job opportunities in Gulf states. The immigration detectives are currently tracing the owners of the passports.