Officials of suspect 'NGO' that offered 20,000 jobs arrested

Four top officials of an organisation that has been recruiting Kenyans claiming it can offer 20,000 jobs have been arrested.

The officials of the organisation, known as East Africa Sub-Saharan Africa Safe Promotion International (SSASP International), were arrested Wednesday afternoon at the NGOs Coordination Board offices.

They were unable to prove the authenticity of their organisation and were immediately arrested and handed over to officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and will later be arraigned in court.

According to Mr Fazul Mohammed, the executive director of the NGOs Coordination Board, the organisation was unregistered and was therefore considered illegal.

“We summoned them today to confirm their registration status. The group came and produced a bunch of brochures and no legal documents to prove their authenticity,” he said.

Mr Mohammed said the officials had no mandate to solicit funds from the public.

He said no employer offering to provide job opportunities was allowed to ask for payment prior to securing a job for an individual.

“It is quite unbelievable that a single organisation can employ 20,000 Kenyans.

“The whole NGO body in Kenya does not have more than 200,000 employees. How is it possible that a single one can accommodate 10 per cent of the total (employees) population,” he wondered.

The board’s officials claimed that there was a possibility that the organisation had extended its network internationally and swindled money from a larger population outside Kenya.

BEYOND KENYA

They said it was possible that the organisation was being run in numerous countries without the knowledge of the concerned governments.

“We told them that we were only interested in dealing with the top officials during the interrogation for they were the ones claiming to have the power to provide employment for up to 20,000 Kenyans,” Mr Mohammed said.

The board confirmed that the four officials were to be arraigned in court and charged with collecting money under false pretence, operating without legal documentation or registration and purporting to have the ability to employ a large group of Kenyans.

The organisation had last week asked a number of people to pay a fee of Sh350 that would secure them a chance to get lucrative jobs.

On Sunday, people from across the country turned up in large numbers to attend the reported transformative event that would see many of them posted to various counties.

The organisation had claimed to be working in cooperation with the Ministry of Devolution and Planning.

However, ministry officials denied knowledge of its existence, saying it was not registered and was operating illegally.