A Nairobi court has ordered that a Benin national suspected to be behind a Sh 700 million gold scam be detained for 10 days to allow police to conclude investigations.
Chief Magistrate Lukas Onyina allowed an application to have Salem Frejus Hector Joyau Ahossi to be detained at Capitol Hill police station for the 10 days.
The Magistrate, having read the application and supporting affidavit by Sergeant Charles Odhiambo and taking into consideration the submissions by counsel for the respondent found that the application is merited the suspect should be detained.
“I am convinced that should the respondent be released, investigations are likely to be compromised since he has no fixed abode in Kenya,” C.M Onyina noted.
Ahossi was Produced before Chief Magistrate Lukas Onyina where police sought orders to detain him for 14 days to conclude investigations.

The suspect is alleged to be involved with an international fraud syndicate where foreign nationals have lost their money after being lured into investment opportunities.
Investigating officer Seargent Charles Odhiambo told the court that Ahossi, who resides in Canada was arrested in Kenya on 25th October 2024.
This is after the matter was reported to Capitol Hill Police Station on the 27th September, 2024 by one Maxime Harouna Sawadogo in the company of Atinho Dassoundo bpth of whom reside in Canada.
A sweet deal
According to the complainant, he was persuaded by the respondent and introduced into a Gold Sale and Purchase transaction on the 17th day of August, 2022 back in Canada where they both attend the same church.
“At that time, the complainant had known the respondent for a period of about three months out of their interactions in the chapel,” Sergent states in his affidavit.
It is alleged that Ahossi informed the complainant that he had business partners in Africa who had a lot of gold available for sale and he had at the same time identified buyers of the said gold who were Belgian nationals and so the only thing that was missing was an investment in the processing of the gold in preparation for its sale.
The gold owners were offering the consignment for sale at a price of USD 35,000 per kilo and further that once the sale was done and profits realized, he was willing to share the profit with the investor on a 50/50 basis.
To sweeten the deal, it is alleged that Ahossi later sent the complainant the profit estimate assuming they had invested in processing 100 Kgs of gold which statistics showed that they would realize profit of 2,061,512.5 Euros.
The court heard that the respondent further told the complainant that his African partners were capable of transacting 8,000 Kgs of gold in a period of six months which translated into a potential profits margin of over 270,000,000 Canadian dollars.
“The complainant hearing developed an interest in the business, took an initiative of visiting to familiarize himself with the respondent’s residence in Canada and the respondent did the same before they went together to their pastor whom they briefed about the business opportunity they intended to pursue,” the investigating officer added.
According to the affidavit by the investigating officer, Ahossi and the complainant later had a meeting at the church compound where he made a proposal that they should begin by processing a consignment of 200 Kgs if he could raise the money stating that it was by God’s Grace that they had met and that within a short period of time he would rise a lot financially.
The court heard that on the 31st August, 2022, the complainant issued his company cheque (Royal Bank of Canada) for an amount of USD 631,435 in the names of Salem Frejus Hector Ahossi (the respondent)
“By this time, the respondent had now disclosed that the gold consignment would come from Accra, Ghana where the seller was based and that the complainant was a passive partner in the first and second transactions of 200 Kgs and 500 Kgs meaning, he would not accompany him to Ghana for the transaction but would only provide the funds.
Before realizing that he was being scammed, the complainant had sent over USD 5 million hoping to get his gold.