Three Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials were on Wednesday, November 14, arraigned in court in connection to a diplomatic fraud case.
In an update, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said the three had their day in court following the conclusion of investigations into allegations of forgery and conspiracy to commit a felony.
“Following the conclusion of an inquiry into allegations of forgery and conspiracy to commit a felony implicating the Deputy Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and two others and the subsequent approval for their prosecution by the Director of Public Prosecution, the three have today been arraigned at the Kibera Court.
“Since March 2023, the U.S. Embassy in Kenya has cooperated with the DCI inquiry into the origins of several falsified diplomatic notes that emanated from the Ministry of Foreign and Diplomatic Affairs, which were signed and released by the said Deputy Chief of Protocol, John Kyovi Mutua,” DCI said.
According to the investigating agency, the three had sought entry visas to the United States for 19 officials drawn from the Central Bank of Kenya, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Public Works, and the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.
However, upon further scrutiny, DCI said officials at the US Embassy believed that some individuals on the list were not government employees.
DCI took over the case and after thorough investigations, it was discovered that Kyovi and Elvis Bikundo had worked with the third suspect, Gared Keburi, in the scheme that generated millions of shillings.
“In the elaborate scheme, only six (6) out of the 19 individuals listed for consideration for U.S. visas and subsequent travel to Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, were legitimate employees of the GoK. The other 13 were the suspects’ means to living large, each channeling up to Ksh 600,000 to the bank account of the third suspect (Gared Keburi).
“Having verified the documents with the Forensic Document Examination Dept and confiscating the passports in question, the investigators preferred appropriate charges which were agreeable to the ODPP in its independent review of the facts and evidence in support,” DCI added.
Following their arraignment in court, the three were granted a cash bail of Ksh 50,000.
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