The court has ordered that a man suspected of defrauding a businessman Sh 13 million to start a Macadamia nuts business to be detained for three days to allow police to conclude investigations.
Senior Principal Magistrate Dolphina Alego allowed the police detain Hussein Sheikh Abdullahi until 30th October at Kilimani police staion.
Abdullahi is alleged to have obtained USD 90,000, (approx Sh 13 million) from Hassan Abdi Bare of City Gas East Africa Limited to start the said nuts business.
According to an affidavit by Police Constable Stephen Kibei, Bare was approached by Abdullahi through his business associates operating under the company name Silverstone Groceries Limited where he lured him into venturing into the business of buying and exporting Macadamia nuts and was promised good profits.
“The complainant availed USD 90,000 on 26th September, 2023 to the applicant to start the business which he had sourced from his company’s accounts,” officer Kibei said.
Is is alleged that after the respondent received the monies, they created a WhatsApp group in the name of Macadamia Project in which both were members and the respondent was posting updates on the progress of the purported macadamia nuts business.
“In the formed WhatsApp group, the respondent herein shared several documents purporting to be issued by different government agencies on the process of clearing the macadamia nuts for export which preliminary investigations shows the documents were forgeries,” the officer added.
According to the investigator, once the complainant realized the business was non-existent, he requested his money back but was issued with several bad cheques by the suspect before going into hiding.
The court heard that preliminary investigations revealed that the Abdullahi is a notorious Macadamia nuts dealer and has defrauded several Kenyans of their heard earned monies by luring them through fraudulent tricks into the macadamia business.
Officer Kibei told the court he needed time to conclude investigations, record witness statements and get a forensic report from the suspect’s phone.
Abdullahi is facing a similar case at Kibera Law Courts where he was charged on 24th October 2024.
He denied the charges and was released on a Sh 1 million bail.