How woman conned friend over Sh2.8m posing as lover

 How woman conned friend over Sh2.8m posing as lover

Noel Akivembe, 51 and Mildred Lujiri, 49, grew up together as best friends and on several occasions, they referred to each other as sisters from different mothers.

Their relationship was very tight to the point that Akivembe asked Lujiri to help her find a husband.

Akivembe, who has three children, felt she was growing old and wanted to settle down.

Two years ago, The Nairobian ran a story of how Akivembe was conned Sh2.8 million by her alleged lover, Daniel Ochieng.

The story was titled “Woman: I sent my ‘sick lover’ over Sh3 million, now I cannot trace him”.

By then, The Nairobian believed that it was Ochieng who had conned Akivembe.

The story in summary, was Akivembe’s narration of how she had been sending money to Ochieng who was allegedly recuperating in an Indian Hospital after breaking his spine.

“I only met him once after my friend introduced us. From then I communicated with him through WhatsApp.

‘‘The last time we spoke he asked for Sh130,000 to help facilitate his release from an Indian Immigration Prison where he had been detained for possessing expired travel documents,” she said.

Akivembe said she was sending money to Ochieng through Lujiri, who had introduced him as a close relative.

Lujiri would then allegedly send money to Ochieng through PayPal, a money transfer application.

However, once the story ran things were not adding up and Akivembe went to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to have the matter investigated.

Investigations have now revealed that it was Lujiri who pretended she was Ochieng and conned her friend.

The investigations were authorised in May 2022, by then Nakuru County Criminal Investigation Officer (CCIO) Anthony Sunguti.

The investigations have revealed that Lujiri introduced a fake relative to Akivembe, claiming he was interested in her.