The series, You, is the perfect depiction of how far Noel Akivembe, 49, was willing to go because of the person she loved. This would come back to bite her.
In her two-bedroom house in Nakuru city, Ms Akivembe, a mother of three, is lost in her thoughts.
She has just come across several social media posts showing that the man she had fallen for, a certain Daniel Ochieng, might have swindled her over Sh3 million.
Despite meeting him once and only communicating through the mobile phone thereafter, Akivembe says, she invested millions to facilitate his medication since August 2021.
She has been sending the man money in instalments. He was allegedly recuperating in an Indian hospital after breaking his spine.
As far as she knows, Ochieng is imprisoned at India Immigration Prison for having expired travel documents
Akivembe says she has been sending money to the man’s alleged sister-in-law who in turn sent it to him through PayPal, a money transfer application.
At her home, Akivembe flashes a picture on her phone before The Nairobian reporter and claims it is Ochieng’s.
But the picture is a spitting image of a politician who lost in the August polls.
“I have just been told by several of my friends that I may have been sending money to a politician in the name of him being sick in India,” says a shocked Akivembe.
A week ago, when she spoke to the reporter, she was convinced that the man was in an Indian prison and requested the media to help air the story for her man to be brought back home.
Akivembe had also written a letter dated March 19, 2022, to Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary seeking government intervention to bring him home.
In the letter, she claimed Ochieng was in prison on the grounds that he had no travel documents.
“He was sentenced to two years in prison or pay a fine of Sh200,000. Even though the fine was reduced to Sh130,000 after appeal, he is still unable to raise the money,” read the letter.
She added that the man’s money was stuck in a bank where he is the only signatory and his grandmother, now deceased, the next of kin.
Ochieng’s wife and daughter allegedly died and he has one living daughter, a minor. Akivembe says that when she met him for the first time in May 2021, he was preparing to go to Singapore to advance his studies.
“We started chatting in January last year… We grew close and we agreed to meet. We first met in May before he left,” she says.
The man, who was allegedly working with a non-governmental organisation, left the country and was supposed to return to Kenya on August 5, 2021.
Weirdly, Akivembe says, Ochieng used an airline, which was supposed to land in Qatar first before coming to Kenya.
The Nairobian team researched and discovered that a flight from Singapore to Qatar is 13 hours long and costs between Sh36,000 and Sh73,800.
A flight from Qatar to Kenya is almost six hours long and costs at least Sh62,000. In total, he would have spent at least Sh98,000 to travel.
However, from Singapore to Kenya, the flight is 15 hours long and costs at least Sh63,000.
Akivembe says while Ochieng’ was on his way to Qatar, a passenger died and he and other passengers were held in in the country. He allegedly tested positive for Covid-19 and was held in the country.
“He was admitted in Qatar and I sent some money to (his sister-in-law) on August 4 and 5, 2021,” recalls Akivembe.
In her M-Pesa statement seen by The Nairobian, Akivembe sent Sh20,200 at 4:16pm on August 4, 2021.
On August 5, 2021, she transferred Sh25,000 at 12:28pm, and on August 6, 2021, she sent Sh5,030 at 7:52am and Sh6,200 at 11:02am.
“Since then, I have been sending money…, whenever he asked me to facilitate his treatment, including Sh140,000 on August 29, 2021,” she says.
In August 2021 alone, Akivembe sent Sh1,017,230, as per her M-Pesa statement.
Ochieng allegedly made a second plan to come back to Kenya in November last year but according to Akivembe, he slid and broke his spine.
To undergo a surgery, he was allegedly flown to India on December 18, 2021, for operations, because Qatar was unable to do the operations.
“A 10-day temporary travel document was issues, but his treatment took longer than the 10 days and when he was to travel back to Kenya on February 10 this year, he was arrested,” she says.
He was allegedly taken to court and sentenced to imprisonment or a fine of Sh200,000 for not having travel documents.
Akivembe sent him Sh25,000 to facilitate his appeal in the hopes he would be deported. However, the fine was allegedly only reduced to Sh130,000.
Akivembe had to borrow money from two friends who sent her Sh300,000 each on February 1 this year. She was to refund by March 29.
On March 29, Ochieng had not returned home and he was pushing Akivembe to send him the Sh130,000.
He allegedly was communicating with her, whenever he was being rushed to the hospital in India.
“When I failed to pay back the money, my friends reported me to the police. I was arrested, charged with Sh600,000 fraud case and remanded at Nakuru GK Women’s Prison for one month, before I raised Sh100,000 bail for my release. My case will be heard on October 31,” she says.
Akivembe wants justice and the truth since she is currently in the dark.
After the discovery, The Nairobian reached out to the alleged sister-in-law for comments. She answered her mobile phone but upon introduction and explaining the reason for reaching out to her, she disconnected the call.
She later blocked our number after texting her about our reasons to reach her and whether she knew Akivembe.
To get a clear picture of what was going on, The Nairobian reached out to the politician, who resembles the man in question. He said he does not know Akivembe.
He said he has never been involved with Akivembe and the last time he was in Nakuru was in 2007.
He denied having a twin brother or a sick cousin in India.
“I have not changed my number. I am a public figure in Kenya and contested one of the top seats in the just-concluded election. I am not a fraudster,” he said.
This was even after Akivembe claimed that the politician is a cousin to the man she has been communicating with.
We reached out to Macharia Kamau, the Principal Secretary in the ministry of Foreign Affairs, sending him the letter we received from Akivembe.
The PS said he knew nothing about Ochieng’s case.
Nothing The Nairobian gathered, even from Akivembe, was enough to help us locate Ochieng. She did not have evidence to show he had been hospitalised.
“For someone who wants to be found and helped to come back to Kenya, it is very strange for them to hide details that may help relevant authorities help him come back home,” he said.
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