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Photo: Courtesy |
Thousands of Kenyan students come to the UK for studies. Many
gain qualifications and return home, but others fall on hard times
because of finances and immigration rules. They also fall prey to
British conmen, often being forced to do things against their will,
writes SHAMLAL PURI.
When Kenyan students come to the UK for further studies, they have
dreams of a successful life after completing their degrees, but many end
up falling on hard times, a situation that also worries the diaspora
parents here.
The plight of one Kenyan student was revealed in a London courtroom
drama on July 19, in a case involving Mark Lancaster, an employee of the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). He had exploited a female
student desperate for financial help.
Lancaster, 40, a top-level computer consultant, was jailed for 16
months in connection with a “pitiless deception” in which he sought to
con hard-up students into having sex with him in exchange for falsely
offering to pay their university fees.
Lancaster, of Horndean, Hampshire, was exposed by the London
newspaper The Independent, following an undercover investigation into
the website sponsorscholar.co.uk and a fictitious business he
established.
The 18-year-old Kenyan woman fell victim when Lancaster duped her
into travelling to a rented flat in Milton Keynes, 87 kilometres from
London, where he filmed her using four secret cameras before having sex
with her.
Appearing at the Southwark Crown Court, the pornography-addicted
father of two admitted a charge of voyeurism and another of trafficking.
The Kenyan woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had found
Lancaster’s website on the Internet while desperately searching for a
loan to finance her studies. The website offered up to £15,000 (about
Sh2 million) in return for four meetings a year with non-existent
“sponsors”.
The woman came from a single-parent family and faced a university
course fee of £11,000 (about Sh1.5 million) starting in September last
year, and a further £5,000 (Sh670,000) for accommodation. The
prosecution said the Kenyan wanted to “reduce the burden on her mother”,
who is a nurse.
Although she became aware that the site was soliciting sex, she sought a meeting with Lancaster to find out about his offer.
In spite of her plan to control her involvement, she was overwhelmed by Lancaster’s personality and the situation.
Unsuccessful
Afterwards, when she did not hear back from Lancaster, she contacted
him and was told that her “application” had been unsuccessful. He gave
her £60 (Sh8,000) and invited her to re-apply in future.
Her world was torn apart — she was humiliated in front of her friends and forced to miss a year of her studies
Lancaster was sentenced to 16 months for voyeurism and the same for trafficking, to run concurrently.
http://ThePaidTask.com/?refcode=5453
