A suspect in the Sh 11 million Afrisend Money Transfer heist has been arraigned in court.
Seth Mwabe Okwanyo was arraigned before Senior Principal Magistrate Ben-Mark Ekhubi where the police sought orders to detain him for 20 days to conclude investigations.
Okwanyo, a cyber security consultant, was arrested at his home in Tatu City on 30th August 2025.
According to an affidavit by Chief Inspector Julius Cheruiyot of the Banking Fraud Unit, the suspect may face charges in relation to unauthorized access contrary to the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act among others.
C.I Cheruiyot told the court that, a total of 38 fraudulent transactions were initiated through a Diamond Trust Bank account number via the Pesalink platform and Sh 11,410,165 fraudulently transferred, bypassing internal system’s transaction visibility and controls.
The officer futher stated that the suspect is an independent consultant in cyber security performing vulnerability assessment and penetration testing (VAPT), general information technology risk assessment and provide recommendations on how to improve their security systems with the financial institution and Payment Service Providers (PSP).
Okwanyo is suspected to have benefited from the said heist hence the need to detain him to conclude investigations.
The police claim they need time to contact Starlink and Telegram, both which operate outside Kenya.
They also need time to obtain Mpesa and bank statements, obtain user profile information from core banking system.
Officer Cheruiyot also told the court thet they need to obtain user profile information from the Kenya Bankers Association and industry players among others.
Okwanyo, through his lawyer, opposed the application on grounds that the police had confiscated everything they need from him.
The court also heard the rest of the investigations does not require the presence of the suspect.
The court will deliver the ruling on the custodial application on 3rd September 2025.
