Yesterday, President William Ruto launched Gava Mkononi, an initiative that aims to digitise 5000 government services made accessible on the E-Citizen platform to enhance service delivery, increase revenue collection, promote transparency, and eliminate corruption.
Ministries, Departments, and Agencies are now onboarding respective services with the hopes of generating a significant spike in revenue from levies and fees charged for government services.
During the launch, Dr. Alfred Mutua, the CS of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, announced his ministry’s initiative dubbed ‘Kazi Majuu, where he explained that Kenyans looking for opportunities abroad would log in to the e-Citizen portal and find available opportunities.
To make it look more attractive, the portal is to include information about genuine agents with job connections abroad. In this, he explained to the president that unscrupulous agents would be cut out of the ecosystem that has recently seen many youths lose millions to fraudsters.
He told the president that by doing this, dishonest agents will be removed from a structure that has lately seen many young people lose millions to scammers.
But there was a catch: Judy Jepchirchir, whom the CS presented as the face of real agents, is really under investigation for fraud and has a history of duping young people into believing they had employment when it doesn’t exist.
Early this month, Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome disclosed that the police are looking into First Choice Recruitment Agency on allegations that it defrauded young people in Eldoret out of millions of dollars.
Koome committed to making sure that those suspected of being engaged in the financial theft of more than 5,000 youngsters in Eldoret are brought to justice when testifying before the Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare.
Koome reminded the Committee that over 300 First Choice Recruitment Agency victims had previously given testimonies to the DCI financial fraud detectives of the National Police Service.
According to the initial inquiries, First Choice Recruitment Agency, which was registered under the leadership of two directors named Judy Jepchirchir and Faith Waringa Gichuhi, purportedly conned young people last year by pretending to arrange for them to work or enrol in school in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup.
Each young person purportedly contributed Ksh 40,000 and turned up their passports to the organisation, but neither employment nor academic placement was obtained.
Her involvement in the programme wasn’t without controversy and notice. The credibility and authenticity of “Kazi Majuu” are definitely in doubt given its contentious background.
The lady in red is First Choice director Judy Jepchirchir. She was accused of swindling 8,000 job seekers in Uasin Gishu County. She was even investigated by a parliamentary committee. When l posted about her scam last year, l was told she was untouchable, now l believe it. https://t.co/pkFsp6CA9g pic.twitter.com/71tiy966VX
— The People’s Watchman (@bonifacemwangi) June 30, 2023
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with the National Police Service financial fraud investigators from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.Preliminary investigations indicate that last year, pic.twitter.com/UvF4mdfpCN
— National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) June 9, 2023