As Citizen TV broadcasted an exposé on Kamiti Prison prisoners defrauding Kenyans through phone calls, David Tett, the son of a prominent politician, was filmed impersonating a foreigner.
Tett is the adopted son of Betty Tett, who served in President Mwai Kibaki’s cabinet as an assistant minister of local government.
He was caught in his prison uniform claiming to be in Lodwar while luring his victim with a foreign accent in the segment, which aired on Sunday, April 17.
“Are you in Nairobi, I am currently in Lodwar Town. How old are you? I am 45 years,” he said in the phone call.
An informant disclosed during the interview that some of the criminals change their accents to make their statements more credible to their victims.
“Most of these people talk in English on the phone after doing their research on you. Once they add some foreign accent the victims automatically, believe them,” the informant disclosed.
David, on the other hand, is not in the press or in the halls of justice. He made news in 2013 when he was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of robbery with violence.
Tett was accused of robbing his father, William Tett, at gunpoint on September 6, 2011, with the help of other attackers who were shot during the assault and made off with Ksh157,000.
The former assistant minister portrayed her foster son as a disturbed boy who had been adopted at a young age during his sentencing.
They were horrified by the situation, according to the ex-local government assistant minister, because they had treated her foster kid as if he were one of their biological children.
“We brought him up having taken him in when he was very young, probably when he was one year old, after the mother’s death. We brought him up as our own and gave him the best education. My own children did not go to the schools he went to,” the ex-assistant minister stated.
Following an appeal he filed arguing the life sentence was too harsh, David received a respite in 2021 when he was sentenced anew at Milimani Law Court, with the judge reducing his jail term to 15 years.
National Police Service (NPS) spokesperson Bruno Shiosi the media that security agents were working around the clock to eradicate the Kamiti racket.
“It is not the first time. The problem at Kamiti has been there for the longest time and we have always been trying to dismantle that network with the help of the prison authorities. We shall also look into it and we have received a lot of scams during the recruitment of police recently,” he stated.
