Criminal have hatched new ways of conning unsuspecting parents by using visitors’ books at learning institutions.
The information makes it easy for the visitor to be identified by name, car number plate, phone number, ID number, phone contacts, and class of their child.
Several secondary schools in Nyeri have lost the registers.
An example of such an incident occurred in February, where a couple drove to Karatina Girls’ High School on the Nyeri-Nanyuki Highway. They stopped outside the school gate to seek help.
The woman requested the gate man to assist them with water to cool off the car engine, which he obliged. The watchman later noticed that the book was missing after the strangers had driven off.
The suspects stole the book when the watchman had gone to fetch water. The incident was reported at Karatina Police Station.
Several weeks later, some parents and area residents who had visited the schools began receiving strange phone calls.
Some callers claimed they had secured tenders in the school, and were willing to share the offer if one sent money to a specified number.
Some parents were caught in the trap. One parent arrived days later with a lorry full of cereals only to realize he had been conned.
The criminals also use the phone number of one of the staff members to solicit for funds pretending that she was unwell.
The details in the records are used to lie to parents that their child is sick and should send money to certain numbers for them to be taken to the hospital.
A week a go while schools were on a break, the thugs were at work. There were reports that more than five schools in Nyeri reported missing their visitors’ registers.
It is unclear how many schools in Nyeri have been targeted, but the Nyeri County Director of Education Sabina Aroni declared that the matter was a big issue.
Nyeri County Commissioner Lyford Kibaara, who is in charge of security committee said that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are pursuing the suspects to bring them to book.
The DCI office in Nyeri declined to comment about the issue. According to some principals of the affected schools, the DCI warned them against speaking to the media about the matter to avoid jeopardizing the probe.
In Baringo County, four suspects pretending to be parents were arrested while attempting to steal the book in a school in Mogotio.
The police found them with seven other visitors’ books from different institutions.