Sexual predators have devised new tricks of abducting teenage girls, in a new trend targeting school-going girls and those who have just completed their secondary school education, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has said.
“The predators prey on the young girls through their social media accounts where they obtain their personal information before they lure them into their trap,” added the Security agency.
DCI disclosed one such case, where a man from Mombasa lured a teenager from Machakos via social media.
The girl nearly fell victim were it not for a bus tout attached to the Executive Bus company.
As the story goes, the girl boarded a bus at Machakos junction and lied to the conductor that she was headed to the coast to meet her brother who stays in Mariakani.
The bus tout asked her to pay her bus fare amounting to Sh 1,500 but the girl only had Sh500. However, after a phone conversation with the said brother, she promised to settle the balance before they reached Mtito a Ndei.
“Along the way, the conductor got suspicious on the true identity of the person the teenager was going to meet and whether that person was truly her brother. Therefore, upon reaching Samburu, the conductor called the man and tricked him that they had arrived in Mariakani,” the DCI narrated.
Adding: “He asked him to come at the bus stop and pick the girl as he settled the balance, but the man told him to send the girl to Kaloleni by a motorbike, where she would meet him then he would settle the balance.”
The suspicious conductor decided to accompany the girl to Mombasa.
Seated next to the girl was a pastor who was also headed to Mombasa, who urged the girl to disclose the true identity of the man she was going to meet.
It is then that she disclosed the man was not her brother but a stranger she had met established contact with through Facebook.
“The bus finally arrived in Mombasa at around 4:30 pm, but the man didn’t show up until later in the evening at 8 pm. What followed shocked the staff of executive bus services, when the teenager said that the man who had come to pick her up was not the man she had been chatting with, adding that he did not resemble the person appearing on the Facebook page,” DCI said.
The bus company accommodated the girl and gave her a ride back to Machakos junction.
According to the DCI, the bus conductor reported that such cases were rampant.
Detectives from the Anti Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit are currently pursuing the suspects.
“Meanwhile, parents are advised to monitor their children’s online activities and the people they socialise with, since cases of young girls being abducted for slavery and sexual exploitation are on the rise. DCI’s anonymous toll-free line 0800 722 203 is open to anybody with more information, that may lead to the arrest of the suspects.”
