Former NTV Journalist Salim Swaleh Arrested After Crackdown- Mudavadi's Office Announces

Former Nation Media Group (NMG) journalist Salim Swaleh, who serves as the Director of the Press service at the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary (OPCS), has been arrested.

The Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs (PCS-MFDA) confirmed the arrest of Swaleh and high-ranking government officials linked to alleged involvement in corruption activities.

"Those arrested include Salim Swaleh, Director of OPCS Press Service, in whose office the swindlers were found nested with fake door switch-nametags," a press statement released by the ministry on Sunday, June 23 read in part.

The office added that further investigations by relevant law enforcement agencies are ongoing to track and arrest other conspirators who may have been involved. 

A section of the Kenya Railways building in Nairobi. /THE STAR

The officials alongside a "cabal" of fraudsters whose operations were facilitated by the officials at OPCS-MFDA at Kenya Railways building were arrested yesterday, Saturday, June 22, 2024.

The arrests followed a tipoff that alerted OPCS-MFDA security, who then mounted intense surveillance at the OPCS-MFDA Railways Office to disrupt the reported nefarious acts of impersonation and misuse of the facility by the fraudsters.

The surveillance involved tracking a group masquerading as visitors, who would individually gain entrance into the Railways Building on different dates and times by falsifying their identities (as VIP guests or Government Officers), and the officers they purported to be visiting.

"Their victims were mainly foreigners who would be shepherded into the Railways Building ostensibly to meet high-ranking Government officers for favours in exchange for bribes.

"The surveillance was able to also track and identify their co-conspirators, among them Government officers who facilitated their dastardly activities," added the statement.

Swaleh was appointed to the role on January 11, 2023, after being previously nominated for the position of Information and Communications Technology, ICT, e-Government and Public Communication chief officer at the Nakuru County government.

He joined NTV after he resigned from Royal Media Services' (RMS) Citizen TV in 2018.