A Nairobi court has freed a university dropout, Seth Mwabe Okwanyo, linked with siphoning Ksh 11,410,165 from a betting firm on a bond of Ksh 1 million with surety of a similar amount.
Delivering the ruling on Wednesday, September 3, 2025, Milimani Principal Magistrate Ben Mark Ekhubi gave the university dropout an alternative of paying a Ksh500,000 cash bail.
“I admit the respondent (Mwabe) to a bond of Ksh1 million with a surety of a similar amount or, alternatively, a cash bail of Ksh500,000, conditional upon him availing three contact persons,” Magistrate Ekhubi ruled.
Mwabe has been released after the court declined the prosecution’s application seeking to detain him for 20 days so as to complete investigations on a case of unauthorised access to section 14(1) of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act.
Application not merited
Magistrate Ekhubi stated that he has found out that the application by the prosecution is not merited in terms of denying the respondent (Mwabe) his liberty.
“I find it is evident that the respondent has no control of what the IO elucidated as part of his investigations, so I hereby do not allow that application,” Ekhubi ruled.
Further, Magistrate Ekhubi has directed Mwabe to appear before the investigative officer Julius Cheruiyot once a week.
Mwabe is being investigated over access with intent to commit further offences contrary to Section 15(1) of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act.
He is also being investigated for stealing contrary to section 268(1) as read with section 275 of the Penal Code.
The State, in their submission seeking to detain him, had told the court that they wanted him to be detained so they could subject electronics seized from him, which include computers, internet routers, phone motherboards and mobile phones, to forensic examinations.
They also stated that they wanted to obtain relevant documents, especially M-PESA and bank account statements, as well as bank account opening documents from mobile phone service providers and banks which are part of their investigations.
Notably, they stated that Mwabe is a flight risk; thus, there is a need to detain him until investigations are over.
However, his defence team vehemently opposed the prosecution application to detain him for 20 days, citing that he is not a flight risk and he has a known abode.
Mwabe was arrested on August 30, 2025, at about 2 pm in his apartment within Tatu City in relation to the offences of unauthorised access contrary to section 14(1) of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act.
This came after Afrisend Money Transfer Limited wrote a letter to the Director of the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit on August 25, 2025, alleging that on July 16, 2025, a total of 38 fraudulent transactions were initiated through a local bank.
Further, the complainant stated that a total of Ksh 11,410,165 was fraudulently transferred, bypassing the internal systems’ transaction visibility and control.
The matter will be mentioned on October 7, 2025.
