Sameer Group’s Naushad Merali Impersonation Saga Of President Uhuru Opens A Pandora Box

In what seems like a well planned out plot of people who’ve studied the system well to know how it runs and who to target a can of worms has been ripped out.

Merali whom has had close ties with almost all administrations since Kenyatta era, was targeted by the now famous group of seven individuals in what has turned out to be an historic scamming.

On January 14 recieved a call from the ‘President’ about a tender, the tycoon had no reason to doubt he caller was not the head of state. The caller perfectly mimicked his voice.

Merali and the ‘President’ exchanged pleasantries on the phone, then got down to business.

The ‘President informed Merali of a state tender he wanted the well-known businessman to enjoy. But there was a catch. The ‘head of state’ asked Merali for a small favour before he could embark on the lucrative contract, Sh10 million in advance for facilitation. That presumably was a trifle compared to the tender itself.

It happened that Merali was outside the country but that wasn’t gonna stop the show given his appetite, he took the risk and tadked his financial officer to process the facilitation fee which at this point we will call it as it is, a bribe.

So elaborate was the plan that the ‘President’ sent his men to pickup the cash from Merali’s office in Mombasa road. Sharply dressed men arrived with full Police escort and high range cars to clear any touch of doubt. They were given the Sh.10M.

So here’s what I pick from the story that Mr. Merali and President Uhuru are obviously not new to each other and probably have had other personal engagements together beforehand for Merali to quickly give in to the mimicked voice.

The suspects didn’t target Merali randomly and using uhuru’s voice randomly, this was elaborate, they must have had an insider information in order to be able to exploit the weak links. Sh10M is not a few coins that Merali would just give easily without solid assurance like the president himself collecting the money. The level of confidence Merali had on the ‘President’ could easily point at a possible previous and similar engagement.

It also can mean that, there’s an elaborate ring including Statehouse officials who target businessmen and defraud in President’s name. Infact, Police investigations are exploring this possibility.

The group has links to State House, Harambee House and other powerful offices which they use to execute their swindles.

The scammers lure rich business people with the promises of restricted tenders mainly involving the supply of goods.

To win the trust of potential bidders, the fraudsters in collusion with government officials and police officers forge documents on letterhead and invite their targets to government offices to sign fake documents. This opens up the Pandora box of how tenderprenuers enjoy privileges from the state officials and how money exchange hands to win contracts.

Merali should be arrested on arrival at the airport from wherever he’s now comfortably hiding to answer on bribery and I’m certain investigators can extract more information from him to catch those in the web that is if they’re serious to take this case to the end.

It also opens up a box of lies that the so called flamboyant ‘businessmen’ make their money, most of the suspects arrested live large, they’ve enjoyed positive press before. This isn’t the first time scamming case to hit the airwaves, it’s still fresh in minds about yet another flamboyant ‘businessman’ Jared Otieno who was also in the spotlight for fraud.