Police in Baringo arrest woman with fake currency notes

Police in Eldama Ravine, Baringo County on Thursday arrested a woman allegedly found in possession of fake new generation Sh1,000 notes.

The woman, 38, was arrested after she bought some clothes from a shop in Eldama Ravine town using the fake currency.

The area sub- county police commander Rashid Mohammed said the suspect, Ms Monica Wangui Kinya was on Friday charged in court with being in possession of papers resembling the Kenyan currency.

DETAINED

However, the suspect denied the charges but her attempts to be released on bond were opposed by the prosecution.

The magistrate ordered that she be detained until Tuesday next week as police conduct further investigations.

Mr Mohammed said that the suspect targeted to spend the money on market day.

“From our investigations, the suspects, who hails from Nakuru, had fake three Sh1,000 notes which she planned to use at the market to buy goods,” said the police boss.

The suspect allegedly bought some clothes from the shop before the shop owner raised an alarm after discovering the currency was fake.

Mr Mohammed said a similar case was reported in the area.

NEW CURRENCY

The first case was reported in December last year where a man was arrested with Sh31,000 fake notes of Sh1,000 denominations.

The police boss urged the residents and particularly the traders, to scrutinise the new currency notes while dealing with strangers.

“Since the new currency notes have started circulating, I urge the residents and traders to scrutinise the notes carefully and report any cases of fake currency to the police,” said Mr Mohammed.

Following the release of the new currencies, police in Eldama Ravine and the mobile phone service providers Safaricom have launched a series of sensitisation campaign to give M-Pesa agents tips on how to detect fake currency notes.