A Nairobi Court today sentenced an alleged NHIF staff imposter to serve two years in prison for defrauding Lopes Limited Ksh 6.9 million in a fake ‘lucrative’ tender promise.
Caroline Rukia Ngozi who was convicted of three counts fraud, obtaining money by false pretenses and personation could not convince court to release him on probation basis after the prosecution pleaded with the court to pass a sentence that would serve a deterrence effect given the seriousness of the offence.
The Advocate representing the complainant in Court had earlier on pleaded with the court to pass a harsh sentence against Caroline saying that the gravity of the offence demanded a harsh custodial sentence unlike what the probation had suggested.
She was charged in 2022 for presenting herself as an employee at NHIF and defrauding Lopes Limited Ksh 6.9 million by pretending that she would secure the said company a tender at National Health Insurance Fund.
During the hearing of the case, a businessman Suleiman Osman Noor told court that the convict Caroline Rukia Ngozi was introduced to him by a friend.
He told court that his friend Ben, told him that Caroline being an ’employee’ of NHIF was to use her influence to link him to a lucrative Ksh 238 million tender deal with the National Health Insurance Fund.
The Court heard that Caroline would later call Suleiman to demand Ksh 6.9M in cash saying that the money was to ‘facilitate’ the procurement of the tender.
Caroline would later disappear into thin air after receiving the money only for Suleiman to go the NHIF offices where he learnt that Caroline was not an employee of NHIF.
After the conclusion of the case, the court ruled that there was sufficient evidence to convict Caroline, and she was convicted on all the three charges of Conspiracy to defraud Lopes Limited Ksh 6.9M, fraudulently obtaining Ksh 6.9M from Lopes Limited and Personating an NHIF staff.
The Court sentenced him to serve 2 years in prison or pay a fine of Ksh 650,000.
