Taxi Driver Fined Sh10,000 for Unlawfully Obtaining Covid-19 Certificates for Tourists

A taxi driver, Victor Nzola Mutuku has pleaded guilty to unlawfully obtaining Covid-19 certificates for tourists.

The taxi driver who operates at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is to pay Sh10,000 or serve three months in jail.

According to Citizen, the taxi driver acted as a go-between for the tourists where he was contacted by the travel agents to facilitate the same.

“On the 3rd day of April 2021, at Amref Medical centre, Wilson Airport within Nairobi County, jointly with others not before the court, conspired to commit a misdemeanor namely personation in order to obtain COVID-19 certificates for five Belarusian nationals namely (1) Maria Kapelevich; (2) Alexander Kapelevich (3) Volha Mukha (4) Lidziya Smirnova and (5) Pavel Germanovich,” court documents are quoted by the publication.

Read: Here Is A List Of Laboratories Allowed To Issue COVID-19 Certificates

Apparently, the travel agent had organized for the tourists to get tested thus asked Mutuku to make a booking with Amref clinic.

The agent however later organized for the tests to be done at Lancet and had the tourists tested, issued with Covid-19 certificates.

Mutuku was reportedly disappointed and went back to Amref to request a refund which he was denied.

Read Also: Kenyatta Hospital Nurse Charged For Making Fake COVID-19 Certificates

He then plotted and took 5 other people to get tested using the tourists’ forms since he was not refunded his money and that was when things went south.

The staff at Amref sensed something was not right as the five people who had gone for testing were of African descent yet the passports were not.

Mutuku was nabbed and the five men he had taken for testing disappeared, leaving him to clean the mess he had created.

Defending the accused, his lawyer argued that he was a first-time offender who wanted to recover the funds that he had paid from his pocket.

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