A Kenyan lady has been left counting her losses after she encountered her own version of the ‘Tinder Swindler’ from a relationship that started on social media platform, Facebook.
During an interview on Hot 96, Rose Kemunto recounted how she lost millions to her Facebook friend only identified as ‘D’. She says she met the man who appeared as a christian, and soon their friendship flourished into a romantic relationship.
Kemunto said that D borrowed her Sh500,000 on the first weekend they spent together at her home, saying he had a tender to supply electricity poles. She went against her friends’ and family’s wishes and gave out the money.
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“He had a tender to supply some poles, but he wasn’t able to finish the tender, so he needed more funding,” she recalled.
“The first time I withdrew Ksh.500,000 and gave him in cash, then we went and had coffee and I also paid for the coffee.”
Kemunto was focused on developing a relationship with D based on a commitment to establish a family, and as a result, she overlooked all the red flags. She assumed her money was safe because they had both hired lawyers to help them reach an agreement.
“He asked for Ksh.350,000, at the time I didn’t have the funds, so he kept asking me to borrow from an institution, so I borrowed from a Sacco and a bank, a total of Ksh.1.2 million,” she said.
After that, D asked for another Sh200,000 to fund the initial tender, and Kemunto went ahead and gave out her car logbook to secure yet another loan. By then, she was flat out broke.
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To add salt to the injury, she resigned from her day job, hoping to flourish in the business that D had said they were building together.
“Because the logbook was in my name, we went to a lending institution to exchange the car, I signed the documents and gave them the logbook,” she bitterly recalled.
D ultimately ended his relationship with Kemunto four years ago, claiming that he did not want to burden her with all of the loans he had taken. Kemunto has never seen a penny from the S1.9 million and an additional Sh350,000 she had received from her brother.
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