Donation Amount. Min £2

East Africa

Photo of former Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko 

Officers drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Thursday arrested a middle-aged man posing as former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko's employee in a bid to scam unsuspecting Kenyans online. 

Detectives traced the suspect to Riokindo Ward, Kenyenya Sub-County in Kisii, where they recovered a handset he had been using to send enticing messages to vulnerable targets. Several SIM cards were also seized.  

The 29-year-old was also accused of impersonating Sonko by stealing his identity to run multiple social media pages. 

"He obtained thousands of shillings from unsuspecting members of the public in an educational loan advance bluff has been arrested by detectives," read part of a statement by DCI.

The suspect was nabbed after the former Governor lodged a complaint at the Capitol Hill Police Station in Nairobi where he reported several Facebook accounts suspected to be operated by the suspect.

According to a report by detectives, the accused claimed to be working with the Sonko Rescue Team and pretended to offer help to needy parents with school fees challenges. 

In the well-orchestrated scam, the accused would author messages that required interested individuals to pay Ksh1,000 for interest-free advance loans. 

Applicants also had to send their ID numbers, full names, locations, and further state the purpose of the loan. 

"However, after receiving the registration fees, the suspect would shift briskly from a persistent caller to the aphoristic, "Patience pays"," the detectives noted.

"DCI Nairobi Area Crime Research and Intelligence Unit team which traced him to his village is processing him before his arraignment on Friday, Jan 19." 

The arrest comes against the backdrop of constant complaints by the ex-governor about individuals using his name to con online users

"These scammers, they con people using my name have become too much, and I hereby declare that through the help of DCI and other government investigative agencies, we are coming for you. Enough is enough. Your days are numbered," Sonko lamented on January 10. By TIMOTHY CERULLO, Kenyans.co.ke

Police caught the suspects red-handed. File picture: Leon Lestrade/Independent Newspapers

Six suspects were arrested by police while robbing a local shop in Dutywa in the Eastern Cape on Monday.

The incident took place at around 4am. 

The provincial police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Siphokazi Mawisa said police members were conducting blue lamp patrols in the Dutywa central business district (CBD) when they noticed suspicious activity.

“Police spotted two suspicious people and on investigation, they found out they were busy stealing in a shop,” Mawisa said. 

“Upon investigation of the crime scene police arrested the other three suspects and recovered stolen liquor and a bakkie that was used in committing the crime.”

A thorough investigation led police officers to the sixth suspect who was found hiding in the roof of the store they had broken into.

“Police recovered liquor amounting to more than R500,000 an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, a grinder machine, and five discs,” Mawisa said.

All the suspects face charges of burglary of a business and theft, possession of an unlicensed firearm, and ammunition. 

The Amathole District police commissioner, Major General Ngangema Xakavu commended the police members for their vigilance while patrolling the streets.

In a separate incident, two suspects were arrested on charges of housebreaking and theft and the stolen property had been recovered. 

The arrests followed an investigation where a 43-inch TV, two Lenovo laptops, three fitness watches, jewellery, clothing, binoculars, several bags, and other items were stolen on Saturday, January 6. 

Kareedouw detectives received information on the whereabouts of where the housebreaking suspects may be hiding out.

Police searched four properties and the majority of the stolen items were recovered.

Two suspects, aged 31 and 36, were arrested and the stolen items, valued at over R90,000 were recovered. By Robin -Lee Francke, IOL

The Flying Squad and the army have apprehended over 140 suspected criminals in Nsangi, within Kyengera town council, Wakiso district, over the weekend. This intelligence-led operation, led by the joint Flying Squad, Kampala Metropolitan South Police, and the army, targeted areas like Kitemu (known as Benghazi), Nakasozi (known as Geyena), and others, addressing numerous complaints of house break-ins.

The spate of robberies also affected the home of former Kawempe South legislator Munyagwa Mubarak, where his security guard is currently hospitalized for head injuries sustained during an attack last Tuesday night. According to police reports, Munyagwa’s residence in Kimbejja Cell, Budo ward, Kyengera town council, was invaded by machete-wielding assailants around 2:00 am, leaving his security guard, Benjamin Mpaka, severely injured.

Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police Spokesperson, highlighted the launch of joint operations resulting in the arrest of 145 suspected criminals, including 39 identified as hardened criminals by residents. After cautioning, 106 suspects were released. The ongoing operations aim to eradicate the heightened criminal activities in these areas.

“We assure you that these operations have just begun, and our goal is to eliminate the criminals terrorizing people here day and night. Some suspects will face court proceedings this week,” Owoyesigyire emphasized. The 2022 crime report documented a total of 6,854 robbery cases, compared to 5,275 in 2021. Among these, 2,516 cases involved lethal weapons like firearms and machetes, while 4,338 cases did not involve any weapons. By URN/Tower Post

 
A new loco is lifted onto the quayside at Dar es Salaam 

TANZANIA Railway Corporation (TRC) has taken delivery of three new electric locomotives and 27 passenger coaches for the new Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) that is under construction between Dar es Salaam and Morogoro and that will eventually extend to the border with Rwanda.

The rail vehicles arrived by ship at the port of Dar es Salaam on December 30 2023 and are currently undergoing commissioning by TRC, before beginning test runs on the new route, which is electrified at 25kV ac.

Four out of the 17 electric 160 km/h locomotives being supplied by Hyundai Rotem have now arrived in Tanzania. They will haul new coaches built by fellow Korean manufacturer Sung Shin Rolling Stock Technology (SSRST). The latest batch of 27 coaches, including 13 business class and 14 economy class cars, is undergoing testing in Dar es Salaam and brings the total of 59 coaches ordered from SSRST now in Tanzania to 56.

One of the three remaining coaches to be delivered will be a special presidential vehicle for the country’s leader, Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan.

TRC has previously taken delivery of 30 former DB Regio double-deck coaches, which were overhauled in Mukran, Germany, before being repainted in TRC’s orange and white livery.

TRC has also ordered 10 EMUs from Hyundai Rotem, each with a capacity for 640 passengers. These are expected to arrive in Tanzania by October. Source: IRJ

 

"My dad had fear, constant fear. He was very afraid that someone would speak up."

In Summary

• TB Joshua, who died in 2021 at the age of 57, is accused of widespread abuse and torture spanning almost 20 years.

• Now aged 27, Ajoke lives in hiding and has dropped her surname "Joshua" - the BBC is not publishing her new name.

 

The BBC reveals how the late megachurch leader TB Joshua, who is accused of committing sexual crimes on a mass scale, locked up his own daughter and tortured her for years before leaving her homeless on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.

Warning: Contains details some readers may find distressing

"My dad had fear, constant fear. He was very afraid that someone would speak up," says one of the pastor's daughters, Ajoke - the first whistle-blower to reach out to the BBC about the abuse she witnessed at her father's church, the Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan). 

TB Joshua, who died in 2021 at the age of 57, is accused of widespread abuse and torture spanning almost 20 years.

Now aged 27, Ajoke lives in hiding and has dropped her surname "Joshua" - the BBC is not publishing her new name.

Little is known about Ajoke's birth mother, who was believed to be one of TB Joshua's congregants. Ajoke says she was raised by Evelyn, Joshua's widow, from as early as she can remember.

Until the age of seven, Ajoke says she had a very happy childhood, going on holiday with the Joshua family to places like Dubai.

But one day everything changed. She was suspended from school for a misdemeanour, and a local journalist wrote an article referring to her as the illegitimate child of TB Joshua. She was pulled out of school and taken to the Scoan compound in Lagos.

"I was made to move to the disciples' room. I didn't volunteer to be a disciple. I was made to join," she says.

The disciples were an elite group of dedicated followers who served TB Joshua and lived with him inside the maze-like structure of the church. They came from all over the world, many staying at the compound for decades.

They lived under a strict set of rules: forbidden to sleep for more than a few hours at a time, prohibited from using their own phones or having access to their personal emails, and forced to call TB Joshua "Daddy".

"The disciples were both brainwashed and enablers. Everybody was just acting based on command - like zombies. Nobody was questioning anything," she says.

Just a child, Ajoke would not follow the rules like the other disciples: she refused to stand up when the pastor came into the room and rebelled against the severe sleeping orders.

The abuse started soon after.

Not long after arriving, aged seven, she remembers being beaten for wetting the bed and then being forced to walk around the compound with a sign around her neck saying "I am a bedwetter."

"The message about Ajoke was that she had terrible evil spirits that needed to be driven out," says one former female disciple.

"There was a time in the disciple meetings - he [Joshua] said people could beat her. Anyone in the female dormitory could just hit her and I remember just seeing people slapping her as they walked past," she says.

From the moment Ajoke moved to the church in the Ikotun neighbourhood of Lagos, she was treated like an outcast.

"She was, like, kind of labelled the black sheep of the family," says Rae, from the UK, who spent 12 years living in the church as a disciple. Like most of the former disciples interviewed by the BBC, she opted to only use her first name.

Rae remembers a time when Ajoke slept for too long, and Joshua shouted at her to get up.

Another disciple took her to the shower and "whipped her with an electrical cord and then turned the hot water on", she says.

Recalling the incident, Ajoke says: "I was screaming at the top of my voice, and they just let the water run on my head for a very long time."

Such abuse was never-ending, she says.

"We're talking about years and years of abuse. Consistent abuse. My existence as a child from another mother undermined everything he [TB Joshua] claimed to stand for."

The abuse escalated to a different scale when she was aged 17 and confronted her dad about "accounts, first hand, of people who had experienced sexual abuse".

"I saw female disciples go up to his room. They were going away for hours. I was hearing things: 'Oh this happened to me. He tried sleeping with me.' Too many people were saying the same thing," she says.

 

The BBC spoke to more than 25 former disciples - from the UK, Nigeria, US, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Germany - who gave powerful corroborating testimony of experiencing or witnessing sexual abuse.

"I couldn't take it any more. I walked directly into his office on that very day. I shouted at the top of my voice: 'Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting all these women?'

"I had lost every iota of fear for this man. He tried to stare me down, but I was looking in his eyes," she says.

Emmanuel, who was part of the church for 21 years and spent more than a decade living in the compound as a disciple, remembers that day clearly.

"He [TB Joshua] was the first person that started hitting her… then other people joined," he says.

"He was saying: 'Can you imagine what she's saying about me?' Even as much as they were hitting her, beating her, she was still saying the same thing."

Ajoke says she was dragged out of his office and put in a room away from the rest of the church members, where she lived in social confinement for more than a year.

It is a form of punishment within Scoan known as "adaba", something Rae also experienced for two years.

During this time Ajoke says she was repeatedly hit with belts and chains, often on a daily basis.

"I wonder how I lived through those times. I couldn't even stand up for days after these beatings. I couldn't even take a shower. He was trying so hard to stop people listening to me."

One day when Ajoke was 19, she says she was escorted to the front gates of the church and left there. The church security, who were armed, were told she was never to be allowed back in. This was six years before her father died.

"I found myself homeless. I had nobody to reach out to. Nobody would believe me. Nothing prepared me for that life," she says.

As a young woman with no money, Ajoke did what she could to survive and spent many years on the streets.

She first contacted the BBC in 2019 after watching a BBC Africa Eye exposé - and so began a long BBC investigation into uncovering the abuse at Scoan.

The BBC contacted Scoan with the allegations in this investigation. It did not respond to them, but denied previous claims against TB Joshua.

"Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated," it said.

TB Joshua is one of Nigeria's most flamboyant and controversial pastors.
TB Joshua is one of Nigeria's most flamboyant and controversial pastors.
Image: BBC

With the help of former disciples and some close friends, Ajoke recently managed to get off the streets. But it has led to episodes where she has struggled with her mental health.

Yet after everything she has been through, she has remained determined to tell the truth about her father.

"Every time I was beaten up, every time I was humiliated, it just reminded me there was something wrong in the system," she says.

Former disciples have told the BBC that seeing Ajoke stand up to this man was one of the main reasons they started to doubt their faith in TB Joshua.

"He kept all of us in slavery, total absolute slavery," says Emmanuel.

"Ajoke was bold enough to confront him. I see her as a hero."

Truth, Ajoke says, is the most important thing to her: "I lost everything, my home, my family, but for me, it comes down to the truth.

"And for as long as there's breath in me, I will defend that, until the very end."

Her dreams are to one day go back to school and finish her education that was cut so short.

This Africa Eye investigation was conducted by Charlie Northcott, Helen Spooner, Maggie Andresen, Yemisi Adegoke and Ines Ward. Source BBC

About IEA Media Ltd

Informer East Africa is a UK based diaspora Newspaper. It is a unique platform connecting East Africans at home and abroad through news dissemination. It is a forum to learn together, grow together and get entertained at the same time.

To advertise events or products, get in touch by info [at] informereastafrica [dot] com or call +447957636854.
If you have an issue or a story, get in touch with the editor through editor[at] informereastafrica [dot] com or call +447886544135.

We also accept donations from our supporters. Please click on "donate". Your donations will go along way in supporting the newspaper.

Get in touch

Our Offices

London, UK
+44 7886 544135
editor (@) informereastafrica.com
Slough, UK
+44 7957 636854
info (@) informereastafrica.com

Latest News

Oman participates in Global AI Summit in Rwanda

Oman participates in...

Kigali: The Sultanate of Oman took part in the Global AI Summit on Africa 2025, held in Kigali, Repu...

Meta faces £1.8bn lawsuit over claims it inflamed violence in Ethiopia

Meta faces £1.8bn la...

Abrham Meareg’s father was followed home and killed after his home address was published on Faceboo...

Kalonzo announces plans to form 'grand coalition' to oust Ruto from power

Kalonzo announces pl...

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka during the unveiling of DNA party (formerly Umoja Summit party). (Coll...

NIS Boss Haji and CS Murkomen Warn Against Social Media Misuse

NIS Boss Haji and CS...

NIS DG Noordin Haji during the inaugural public lecture at the National Intelligence & Research...

For Advertisement

Big Reach

Informer East Africa is one platform for all people. It is a platform where you find so many professionals under one umbrella serving the African communities together.

Very Flexible

We exist to inform you, hear from you and connect you with what is happening around you. We do this professionally and timely as we endeavour to capture all that you should never miss. Informer East Africa is simply news for right now and the future.

Quality News

We only bring to you news that is verified, checked and follows strict journalistic guidelines and standards. We believe in 1. Objective coverage, 2. Impartiality and 3. Fair play.

Banner & Video Ads

A banner & video advertisement from our sponsors will show up every once in a while. It keeps us and our writers coffee replenished.