The Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs (PCS-MFDA) has confirmed the arrest of several high-ranking officials within the ministry following a crackdown on Saturday.
According to a press statement released by the ministry on Sunday, Salim Swaleh, the Director of the Press Service at the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary (OPCS), was arrested for alleged involvement in corruption activities.
“Those arrested include Salim Swaleh, Director of OPCS Press Service, in whose office the swindlers were found nested with fake door switch-nametags,” read the statement in part.
Further, the ministry revealed that the arrested officials and their accomplices rented their offices as spaces for unscrupulous business people to conduct illegal dealings.
According to Mudavadi’s office, the officials had become adept at the illegal trade, which included switching out nametags on doors to further deceive unsuspecting victims.
The ministry detailed that the arrests followed a tipoff that alerted OPCS-MFDA security, who then mounted intense surveillance at the OPCS-MFDA Railways Office to disrupt the reported acts of impersonation and misuse of the facility by the fraudsters.
To arrest the individuals, the security team tracked a group masquerading as visitors to gain entrance into the Railways Building where Mudavadi’s office is located. The group would then falsify their identities as VIP guests or government officers and the officers they purported to be visiting on different dates and times.
Victims of the scam have been identified as mostly foreigners who would be shepherded into the Railways Building ostensibly to meet high-ranking Government officers for favours in exchange for bribes.
Mudavadi’s office has also reported that upon the arrest of the officials, they attempted to bribe their way out.
“Upon being smoked out in one of the OPCS-MFDA Railway offices where the confidence tricksters had settled in wait for their victims on Saturday, the group had the audacity of attempting to bribe their way out,” read the statement.
The OPCS-MFDA has also requested information that would oust any corruption-related activities within the ministry.
Swaleh landed the job at OPCS after resigning from his role at the Nation Media Group to take up another job offer at the Nakuru County Government, working for Governor Susan Kihika. However, in an interview with Kenyans.co.ke in 2023, the former journalist explained that he chose to take up another job offer at Mudavadi’s office following a delay in the vetting process at Nakuru.
