Man masquerading as Gachagua’s wife arrested after conning 200 people on Facebook
Blaise Wafula was arrested for fraudulently obtaining money from unsuspecting Kenyans while masquerading online as pastor Dorcas Rigathi - Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s wife.
At the time of his arrest, 23-year-old Wafula had obtained over Ksh280,000 from at least 200 people on social media.
Court documents show that the suspect was offering his victims non-existent education and business loans through M-Pesa.
He used to charge the applicants Ksh700 for registration fees and Ksh2500 for applications for the supposed loans he was offering.
The unsuspecting victims were promised loans ranging from Ksh10,000 to Ksh200,000 after paying the registration and application fees.
The suspect had opened 14 parody Facebook accounts using pastor Dorcas Rigathi's name. The accounts have huge following as the least has 7,000 followers and the highest has 27,000 followers.
Wafula was ultimately arrested at his hideout in Soy, Uasin Gishu county by detectives who tracked him using cyber forensic analysis of digital data.
Four mobile phones, three national identity cards of different persons and four sim cards were recovered when police arrested the suspect.
Wafula was jointly charged alongside his co-accused Jacklyne Tokesi, before Milimani Law Courts chief magistrate Lucas Onyina.
They were also charged with fraudulently using electronic data contrary to Section 38 (2) of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act, 2018.
They are accused of creating Facebook accounts between December 2022 and January 8, 2023, in relation to Mama Care Initiative Loan associated with the DP’s wife.
