Nairobi court told how fake Canadian Embassy official pocketed over Ksh.51M in visa scam

A Nairobi court has heard how more than Ksh.51 million was paid to a man who allegedly masqueraded as a Canadian Embassy official, promising to process visas that never materialised and leaving dozens of Kenyans stranded, arrested at airports, or turned back during transit.

The revelations emerged during a hearing before Milimani Trial Magistrate Paul Mutai, where a prosecution witness detailed how the elaborate scheme unfolded over nearly two years.

Testifying in court, Lidia Nyagala, a former employee of Golden Key Travel Consultants Limited, told the court that the firm engaged the accused, Brian Reeves Obare, between March 2022 and November 2023 to facilitate Canadian visa applications for its clients.

Nyagala said Obare was introduced to the company by Esnas Mboga, a friend of Nancy Najira, and was presented as a counsellor attached to the Canadian Embassy. She testified that she first met Obare at Embassy House in Nairobi’s central business district, where he represented himself as a consular official.

Under the arrangement, clients paid Golden Key Travel Consultants, which would then forward the money to Obare for visa processing. The agreed fee per client was Ksh.450,000, with an initial deposit of Ksh.124,500.

The witness told the court that the firm collected passports and supporting documents from clients, including identity cards, birth and marriage certificates, academic documents, digital photographs, police clearance certificates, COVID-19 certificates and yellow fever cards, which were then handed over to the accused together with payments.

Nyagala testified that communication with Obare was mainly conducted through phone calls and WhatsApp, and that he would later send documents allegedly meant for biometrics before demanding full payment. Clients’ passports would also be surrendered to him upon request.

She told the court that fewer than 50 passports were submitted for processing, but none of the applicants ever successfully travelled to Canada.

According to her testimony, some clients were arrested at airports, others were denied boarding, while several were returned to Kenya from Addis Ababa and Dubai during transit. She further told the court that Obare later demanded an additional Ksh.50,000 per client, claiming he had contacts at airports who could facilitate their departure. Despite the extra payments, the visas were eventually crossed out and declared invalid.

Nyagala said attempts to verify the visas with the Canadian Embassy initially proved unsuccessful.