What began as a desperate search for a better life turned into a nightmare of torture, forced cybercrime and modern slavery for a young Kenyan man who says he was trafficked into a notorious scam compound in Myanmar.
Duncan Okindo, the eldest of five children, says poverty and family pressure pushed him to abandon his education and seek opportunities abroad. Like many young Africans hoping to escape hardship, he believed a foreign job could transform his family’s future.
Speaking in an interview with Afrimax, Okindo revealed how he was lured with promises of a lucrative customer service job in Thailand, only to discover he had been trafficked into a sprawling criminal operation known among victims as “Scam City”.
How He Ended Up In A Myanmar Scam Compound
“She processed the documents and everything looked genuine,” he recalled. “The salary sounded life-changing. I believed I could solve my family’s problems within a year or two.”
Within days, he was on a flight from Kenya to Bangkok. But the dream quickly began to unravel.
According to Okindo, the agent who had constantly communicated with him suddenly disappeared the moment he landed. He was then handed over to a network of traffickers who transported him through Thailand toward the Myanmar border.
The journey itself raised suspicions.
Drivers monitored the group constantly, even during bathroom breaks, while language barriers prevented victims from asking questions. Soldiers reportedly stopped their vehicle several times along the road, but the driver would simply wave their passports and shout “tourist Kenyans”.
After hours of travelling through remote areas, Okindo and the others arrived at what appeared to be an isolated compound surrounded by high walls.
What happened next terrified him.
Chinese men accompanying the group allegedly allowed elderly women to seize their luggage before leading them through a forest path toward a river crossing. On the other side, armed men in military uniforms waited.
“That was the moment I became fully convinced something was wrong,” he said.
Life Inside The Myanmar Scam Compound
The group was eventually driven into another heavily guarded compound where their passports and phones were confiscated immediately.
Inside the facility, victims discovered they had all been deceived with different job offers. Some believed they were travelling to become teachers, drivers or supermarket attendants. Okindo thought he had secured a customer service role.
Instead, they were told they would work as online scammers targeting wealthy Americans.
“The manager laughed and told us the truth,” he recounted. “He said we had been brought there to scam people.”
Okindo said he protested immediately, insisting he had never stolen from anyone before. But his objections allegedly triggered chilling threats.
“He told me, ‘You came here to scam people, and you will do it because I already bought you.’”
According to his account, victims were trained to impersonate wealthy home buyers in order to deceive American real estate agents. Once trust had been built, targets were manipulated into fake cryptocurrency investments and persuaded to deposit money onto fraudulent trading platforms.
Torture, Fear And Survival In Myanmar Scam City
Failure to meet scam targets allegedly resulted in brutal punishment.
Okindo described scenes of beatings, electric shocks, humiliation and sexual abuse inside the compounds. Some victims were reportedly locked in freezing rooms for hours, while others were punished for minor actions such as yawning or moving during work hours.
“We worked extremely long hours with very little sleep,” he said. “It felt like modern slavery.”
The trauma, he added, still haunts him.
“I witnessed people being electrocuted, beaten and abused. Some women were tortured on sensitive parts of their bodies.”
He also claimed some victims disappeared entirely after resisting orders or failing to meet targets.
Okindo says he suffered severe injuries himself after being violently kicked in the back by handlers. Poor sanitation and overcrowded sleeping quarters reportedly caused infections among many captives.
Hope only arrived when rescue operations targeting trafficking compounds in Myanmar began.
By then, Okindo said he had already watched fellow victims lose their health, suffer severe abuse or vanish altogether.
Back home and speaking out
Even after being removed from the compounds, conditions at rescue centres reportedly remained dire, with shortages of food and poor sanitation compounding survivors’ suffering.
Eventually, he secretly accessed a hidden phone and contacted people back in Kenya. His story spread rapidly online and reportedly drew the attention of Kenyan authorities, triggering diplomatic efforts involving Kenya and Thailand.
When he finally landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, relief overwhelmed him.
“I genuinely believed I would never make it home alive,” he said.
Now back in Kenya, Okindo says he has made it his mission to warn others about trafficking syndicates posing as overseas recruitment agents.
He has since been sharing his experience on social media and in media interviews to educate young people about fake foreign job opportunities, particularly those linked to Myanmar-based scam operations.
“Some people have already cancelled suspicious travel plans after hearing my story,” he said. “I’m grateful that maybe I’ve helped save lives.”
