This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
On May 31, 2020, the Sunday Nation published a tender advert from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that raised suspicions. Moses Gichuru wrote to the newspaper, saying the advert was a 'con game'.
The advert had all the tell-tale signs of a scam, including poor typography, ungrammatical wording, and unclear descriptions of the goods and packaging.
The tender was for the supply of seven different consumables, with the same quantity of 885,605 for each item. The descriptions of the goods and packaging were unclear, and the advert mentioned a regional office in Kenya, which does not exist.
This was not the first fake tender ad published by the Sunday Nation. In February-March 2018, a similar fake tender was published online for the supply of home appliances, building materials, animal feed, relief food, and hair salon equipment.
The Sunday Nation has a working relationship with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which awarded the newspaper $1,230,099 in 2016 and $2,843,095 in 2019.
When questioned about the fake advert, the NMG commercial manager, James Sogoti, said it was an 'unfortunate transaction' that was 'processed online, and this resulted in a service gap during this challenging time'.
He explained that the scammers seemed to have had 'good information on the great partnership that exists between NMG and Bill & Melinda Gates, something they took advantage of while getting services of a relatively new staff'.
To mitigate against this happening in the future, NMG is updating its client database, enforcing the 'Know Your Client' process, and retraining its sales teams on due diligence for booking ads.
The Sunday Nation has since informed its readers about the scam and advises them to make appropriate enquiries before sending money or entering into a binding commitment in relation to an advertisement.
