Where are our sons? Two families are in agony over abducted kin

Most of the suspected SIM swap fraudsters are university students and high school dropouts. [Courtesy]

The families of two men forcibly taken on December 5,2024 from Chepkosa and Yoiwana in Chepalungu Sub-County, Bomet County, by suspected police officers are in anguish.

The whereabouts of Kevin Kiplangat Maritim, alias Elvis Chepkosa, 34, and Dominic Kipngeno Langat, alias Hillary Muge, 28, remain unknown since they were abducted.

The duo was reportedly abducted in Mai Mahiu and taken to Lari police station in Kiambu County. On Thursday, Chepkosa's mother, Janeth Koech, pleaded for his release.

“We know they committed an offence, but the government should have arraigned them in court, but it didn’t happen. We are devastated because we don’t know where he is, who has him, or whether he is safe. We are just hoping and praying he will be released,” she said.

The families said they have been running to every scene, CID headquarters, and Lari police station, hoping to at least get their sons.

“The mother has been ailing ever since because she has not been eating or sleeping well since her son was taken,” Hezekiah Ngeno, Muge's uncle, said.

Ngeno said his family has been living in agony since then, with their efforts to trace them bearing no fruit.

A Subaru motor vehicle, allegedly, had trailed the Prado the two were aboard. Aboard the Subaru were armed men who fired at the Prado and deflated it.

The Prado veered off the road, and it was at that point that the occupants were abducted by hooded armed men. 

Soon after, their mobile phones were switched off as police towed the Prado to Lari Police Station. The reasons for their abduction remain unclear, even as families of victims demand answers from the state on their whereabouts.

Bomet County Police Commander Edward Imbwaga said the two were part of a gang known as the Mulot Sim Swap Syndicate, which has been fleecing unsuspecting members of the public of their hard-earned money.

"The two were part of that gang, but we don't know their whereabouts." We heard that the two were arrested in Mai Mahiu and taken to Lari police station, so why don't you contact Lari police station to give you more information regarding that?" Imbwaga said.

In 2023, Kevin Kiplang’at Maritim, alias Elvis Chepkosa, was arrested alongside his close associates Hillary Muge, Emmanuel Tonui, and Evans Kiprotich Chirchir, alias Protio, in Bomet and arraigned in Kericho court.

They denied robbery with violence charges and were each released on a Sh1 million bond with two sureties of Sh500,000 each.

The charge sheet indicates that on December 28, 2023, at Upper Hill Estate in Litein, Bureti Sub County within Kericho County, jointly with others not before the court while armed with dangerous weapons, namely pistols, robbed Wesley Kipngenp Tanui of his motor vehicle valued at Sh1,520,000 and cash of Sh150,000, all totalling Sh1,670,000, and used actual violence against the said Tanui.

They denied the charges before a Kericho court.

According to police, Chepkosa is the leader of the infamous Mulot SIM swap syndicate. He was arrested on February 13, 2024, by DCI officers who sought more time through a miscellaneous application to detain him.

Chepkosa allegedly started engaging in the crime around 2014 after learning about the vice from one Job Kipkoech Rere, a cybercriminal who learnt the same while incarcerated at Naivasha Maximum Prison. According to police, he periodically recruits youth from the area and trains them on his social engineering and SIM swap activities.

This has seen the vice becoming widespread in Mulot, and it is said that there is at least one SIM swapper in every homestead.

This has seen syndicate members escaping arrests or being released from custody in unclear circumstances, officials say.

Police claim that during low seasons, when SIM swap activities are not yielding much, the syndicate members involve themselves in robberies within Bomet, Kericho and Nakuru Counties.