James Wakahiu

Three  men were yesterday charged with stealing Sh970,000 from a bank account belonging to a 73-year-old customer. 

Anthony Kaiba, Kelvin Maina and Joseph Kariuki appeared before a Thika Magistrate Anne Maina and denied charges of conspiring to steal the money from Faith Wanjiku’s account.

They were charged that on July 16, together with others not before the court, conspired to steal the cash from Equity Bank, Thika branch.

Complete probe

The prosecution led by State counsel Wamuyu Nguai successfully applied for three days to hold the accused to pave way for completion of investigations.  

She said more suspects would be arrested.

Justice Maina ordered the three be held at Thika Police Station. The case will be mentioned on October 7.

The three were arrested by detectives on Tuesday after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) indicated in a tweet that the money from the elderly woman’s account was transacted in four series using the Equity Bank’s Eazzy App.

Kaiba, Maina and one Vivian Jelagat are said to have received Sh300,030 each. The remainder of the loot was transferred to various Equitel mobile numbers.

The DCI said the  search for other perpetrators was still on.

State House Digital Director Dennis Itumbi, who has led the campaign for Ms Wanjiku to get justice, said she had opened an account with the bank so that money from the sale of a piece of land would be deposited into the account.

The woman at the time claimed the bank had refused to share the report on investigation into the fraud.

However, the bank later responded saying the DCI had taken over investigations and that they would advice the client on way forward.