A Nairobi court has allowed an application to detain a Kenyan and two foreigners for 15 days to complete investigations.
Abddoulaye Tamba Kouro, Abdalla Tamba and Anthony Mwangangi Munyiva were arrested on Monday in Westlands, Nairobi with over Ksh.1billion fake bills.
In their application, the Prosecution told the court that the amount seized needed to be calculated and it is bulky. It was further argued that more time is needed to establish the true identity of the foreigners.
Flying Squad Unit Investigating Officer Mohammed Godana Hussein, in an affidavit, further added that there may be accomplices who are still at large.
During the raid on Monday evening, police recovered a wooden machine for making papers to be disguised as authentic currency notes.
In another room, the police also found strange objects in form of animal skin and beads believed to be used by the suspects for witchcraft purposes.
According to a flying squad officer privy to the operation, the suspects are immigrants and have been carrying out illegal activities in the country, the men have been conning desperate Kenyans with empty promises of making them wealthy using witchcraft.
“Kenyans come to them with hopes of becoming wealthy only for them to end up in poverty. They have been duping desperate citizens whereby they ask them to come with a certain amount of money and pretend to pray for them through witchcraft rituals and in exchange they are given huge amounts of foreign currencies which in real sense are fake. They are conning them to believe that they go back as wealthy people yet they are actually stealing from them,” he explained.
According to the Prosecution, the suspects may sabotage the Kenyan economy if they are released.The three were arrested at Sandalwood Apartments along Brookside Drive after a tipoff from members of the public.
Nairobi Court Magistrate Sinkyiak Tobiko case ruled that the case be mentioned on October 16 for plea taking and further directions.
This is not the first time that foreigners have been arrested with huge amounts if fake money. In June, a court sentenced two foreigners to 10 years in prison after they were arrested with ksh 110 billion fake notes.
n his ruling, Nairobi Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi noted that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt the cases against Mohamed Sani alias Dr. Mustafa from Niger and Ousman Ibrahim Bako, a Cameroonian.
The court heard that the two were found in possession of the forgery papers in January 14 and January 15, 2016 at Diamond Park II Estate in Nairobi.