‘It’s either the money or death’: W***n fakes k********g to get Ksh30,000 from mother

Police are holding in custody a youthful woman who faked being kidnapped so that she could get Ksh30,000 from her mother.

Clare Muthoni was arrested on Thursday night, March 25 at Website Bar in Kangundo, where she was lodging with her friend identified as Diana Wanjiku.

The two were previously living in Nyeri before relocating to Nairobi, police said.

The suspect, Muthoni, had on Tuesday, March 23 sent her mother -- a resident of Riruta Satelite in Nairobi -- a distress message, claiming she had been kidnapped, and that her abductors were demanding a Ksh30,000 ransom.

Muthoni used her phone number to communicate with her parent.

“Should you fail to send the Ksh30,000, your daughter’s throat will be slit open,” the distress message to Muthoni’s mother, Jane Wamuyu, read.

Shortly after sending the text, Muthoni’s WhatsApp account sent a picture of the subdued Muthoni to communicate the gravity of the situation.

In the picture, Muthoni’s hands and legs were tied and a kitchen knife placed next to her.

The sender of the blackmail message, thereafter, warned Muthoni’s mother, Wamuyu, against informing police about the incident, saying Muthoni will be killed if Wamuyu alerts law enforcement officers.

A shaken Wamuyu, nonetheless, filed a report of the alleged kidnap at the Karen Police Station.

Detectives from Crime Research and the Intelligence Bureau, thereafter, took up the matter.

“Their investigations led them to Misiani Village in Kangudo, where they laid an ambush with the intention of catching Muthoni’s kidnappers,” the DCI said on Twitter on Friday, March 26.

The sleuths were, however, shocked to discover Muthoni had not been abducted, but had faked the ordeal to extort Ksh30,000 from her mother.

“There were no kidnappers other than Muthoni, who was at a local bar,” said DCI.

“The suspect was with a friend identified as Diana Wanjiku. The two had booked a room at Website Bar after escaping from Nyeri, where they both lived previously,” detectives said.