Fraudster Posing as a UN Agent Arrested After Conning a Nairobi Businessman of Sh11 Million

A suspected serial fraudster has been charged with defrauding a Nairobi businessman of Sh11 million while posing as a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) agent.

Martin Shiamia Matchel, 34, appeared at a Kiambu court where he denied four charges of conspiracy to defraud, stealing by agent, obtaining goods by false pretenses, and forgery of UNHCR documents.

In December last year, the suspect is said to have tricked a city-based businessman named Mohammed into believing that he had been awarded a lucrative tender to supply UNHCR with 1,680 bags of high-grade rice.

While posing as an agent of top decision-makers in the UN offices at Gigiri, Matchel asked Mohammed to submit his business profile to an email address purportedly belonging to the UNHCR.

A week later, the businessman was informed that he had been awarded the tender and was required to supply the rice within the shortest time possible since the rice was required for relief distribution to hunger-stricken refugees at Nile Camp in South Sudan.

Matchel proposed to Mohammed to import the rice at a cheaper price from Tanzania as the whole consignment could not be secured in the country expeditiously.

On December 18th, 2021, the trader sent his son to accompany Matchel to Arusha and the two returned to Nairobi the next day with samples of the rice, which would be presented to purported quality assurance officers at the UNHCR for inspection.

Mohammed was told that the samples had been accepted and he now had the green light to supply the product.

Between December 23rd and 27th, Mohamed transferred a sum of Sh11 million from his Equity Bank account to an account belonging to Yazeed Rice Company in Tanzania.

“In order to convince Mohamed that all was going well, a lady identified as Peris Nyawira, purportedly an Inspection Officer from the UNCHR touched down in Arusha on December 22nd, to ensure that all was going well and that the rice was being packaged in the required manner. The consignment was packed in three trailers from the company’s godown in Kahama, 7 hours drive from Arusha town,” the DCI says in a report.

Nyawira reportedly requested delivery and invoices from Mohammed via email, received the goods formally by stamping the documents with fake UNHCR stamps, and declared the goods to be safely in the hands of a UNHCR logistics officer, who would ensure the consignment reaches South Sudan.

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 learned on February 6th, 2022, that the whole deal was a conspiracy of lies and that the rice went nowhere past Nairobi.

Investigations by DCI detectives revealed that Matchel and his accomplices had diverted the whole consignment to a hired godown in Kasarani, where they were selling it at Sh75 per kilogram. Mohammed had bought the product at Sh105 per kilo.

“So much was the demand for the cheap top grade rice, that some traders in the city saw a serious business opportunity and telephoned Yazeed Rice Company in Tanzania, asking whether ‘kuna ingine.’ Yazeed who didn’t know what had transpired immediately called Mohamed and asked him why he had decided to sell the rice that he bought from him at a throwaway price.”

“That is when it dawned on Mohammed that he had been swindled after calls to Matchel’s phone went unanswered, followed by being blacklisted,” DCI added.

On February 7th, Mohammed walked into the UN offices in Gigiri to enquire about the incident. It was at the offices that he was told the documents in his possession were all fake and no such tender had been issued.

He reported the matter to the DCI headquarters and investigations were launched immediately.

Matchel was arrested on Sunday at the Namanga border point as he was attempting to cross over to Tanzania to defraud yet another businessman.