A man suspected to be part of a syndicate involved in electronic bank fraud will remain in custody for another five days to allow police to conclude investigations.
Senior Principal Magistrate Ben-Mark Ekhubi issued the orders to detain Emmanuel Kipkoech Rotich who was arrested at his home in Umoja one.
This is after the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) received information through intelligence on 5th December 2024, to the effect that a certain criminal syndicate residing in Nairobi and other parts of the country was engaging in cybercrime related activities targeting bank accounts and executing electronic money transfers without authority of the bank account holders.
Upon entering his house, the officers conducted a search and recovered 19 Identity Cards, 11 debit cards, 13 Safaricom sim cards, 31 Airtel Sim cards, 3 Equitel Sim cards, 3 mobile phones and an assortment of documents including academic certificates.
Corporal Edwin Metto said that preliminary investigations have revealed that some of the recovered identity cards have similar identity card numbers yet different photos whereas other cards have different card numbers but share the same photographs.
“The investigating officers now believe that most of the recovered identity cards may be forged documents which have been used to register mobile SIM cards for purposes of carrying out fraudulent activities,” Metto added.
The court heard that the respondent was briefly interviewed at the scene and he could not give a satisfactory account of how he came in possession of the said documents as well as the SIM cards recovered from his house.
According to the investigating officer, Rotich is a flight and may abscond if released on bail before investigations are concluded.
The investigator told the court that Rotich had last week issued a notice to vacate to his landlord.
However, the respondent through his lawyer opposed the application on grounds that he was not a flight risk.
He added that the investigators have enough evidence to prefer charges against him.
“Should the court be inclined to issue custodial orders, it should be for three days and not eight days,” the court heard.
After considering the submissions by the parties, the magistrate ruled that Rotich should be detained for five days at Muthaiga Police Station.
According to the magistrate, five days are sufficient to allow investigators to conclude investigations.
