Is Nairobi becoming dump site for fake currency?

Fake foreign cash

Discovery of a cache of largely fake foreign cash in Nairobi have raised concerns on whether Nairobi could be turning into a base for transnational fake cash cartels

The large sums of fake foreign currency seized by the police in recent months amounting to Sh32 billion in a residential house in Ruiru town, 26km north-east of Nairobi, followed a series of similar cases in the past few years.

Ms Nancy Muthoni Muchori and Mr Joseph Munyao Kamandi were arrested in the operation by officers from the Special Crimes Prevention Unit, and are facing charges of “forgery, possession of papers of forgery and obtaining money by false pretence”.

The detention of the duo followed last October’s arrest and prosecution of a Chadian male national, his son and their Kenyan accomplice on suspicion of being in possession of about Sh1 billion in counterfeit dollars and euros — the latter used in 19 of the 28 members of the European Union.

The fake cash haul, which led to the arrest of Abdoulaye Tamba, his son Abdalla and their Kenyan driver Anthony Mwangangi, in upmarket Nairobi’s Westlands, added to the queue of foreigners arrested on allegations of dealing in counterfeit foreign money.

In June 2018, the High Court in Nairobi condemned a Niger and Cameroonian nationals to 10 years in jail for possession of an estimated Sh110 billion in counterfeit currency.

The two were also in possession of tools for making fake bank notes. The trial took two-and-a-half years, following the foreigners’ arrest in Nairobi’s Diamond Park II in 2016.

The two, Mohammed Sani from Niger and Cameroonian Ousman Ibrahim Bako, had been arrested after police found them with the fake dollar and euro notes, money printing machines, cutters, scanners, five safes, two computers, chemicals, masks and foil paper.

Two other suspects were arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in October 2016 with fake Sh267 million euro notes in 500 bills on their way to Dubai.

Inadequate information on the number of fake bank notes in circulation in Kenya, analysts say, makes it difficult to establish the impact it is having on the economy.

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