Image Source: Directorate of Criminal Investigations-DCI
A 23-year-old medical student at Makindu Medical Training College is being held at Kayole police station after staging his own kidnapping in order to extort money from his parents.
Last Sunday, Edwin Kamau 'disappeared' before blocking his father and calling his mother, pretending to have been kidnapped. Before he hung up on her, he told her that his kidnappers demanded a ransom of Sh70,000 to release him.
His heartbroken parents alerted authorities, who immediately launched a manhunt for the kidnappers. However, the calls continued, with Kamau informing his mother that his kidnappers were about to kill him.
They sent Sh10,000 via mobile money yesterday and another Sh40,000 today to secure their son's life.
After receiving the initial Sh10,000, Kamau went to a Thika bar to irrigate his throat and have fun with a babe he had met. And, as fate would have it, the woman was a pishori administrator who poisoned his drink with an unknown chemical and stole the money.
He contacted them again today, after recovering control of his faculties, and his parents handed him another Sh40,000, which he withdrew and secured in his shoes.
Detectives had closed in on him by this point. When questioned, Kamau stated that he had spent money earmarked for his last semester's school tuition and was unsure how he would collect funds to sit for his examinations; hence the fabricated story.
He also revealed that he was 'kidnapped' along with two other pupils whose parents had paid their ransoms. Detectives recovered Sh38,600 from the student, who is currently being held at the Koyole police station pending arraignment.
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