Man in court for fraudulent use of Ex-MP Mwau’s ID
A Nairobi businessman was on Thursday charged with stealing an identity card belonging to former Kilome MP John Harun Mwau which he allegedly used to fraudulently register an M-Pesa account.
Mr Simon Njenga Muiruri, 37, was charged at the Milimani Law Courts where he denied that between July 3 2013 and November 19 2014 at an unknown place, jointly with accomplices still at large, stole identity card number 18828820 belonging to the politician.
Senior Principal Magistrate Joseph Karanja released him on a bond of Sh 50,000 and directed that he returns to court on January 22 for fixing of a hearing date for the case.
In a police file presented in court, the suspect registered the fake M-Pesa account in Mr Mwau’s name at a shop in Sultan Hamud trading center where he was formerly employed as an agent.
The owners of the shop identified in the police file as Mr Shaban Ali Isaack, Mr Adan Mohammed and Mr Derow Ahmed were questioned about the fraudulent registration on January 3 but were released without any charges.
Mr Mwau in a statement recorded over the incident on November 19 2014 states that he has never registered as an M-pesa subscriber.
SERIOUS CRIME
He states that he was informed that “certain individuals and an NGO allegedly funded by a prominent donor agency were in the process of registering my name as an M-Pesa subscriber clandestinely and had already perfected the registration.”
“I am am aware that identity theft is a serious crime and any person or entity engaging in such activities is a criminal or habours bad motives… it is on this basis that I decided to report the matter to the Criminal Investigation Directorate for investigations and to ascertain whether the allegations were true,” Mr Mwau’s statement read.
The politician further stated that he had never given any person his ID card number, date of birth, information or instructions to register him as an M-Pesa subscriber.
“In order to assist with the investigation, I provided the CID with my ID number,” Mr Mwau wrote in the statement.
According to the statement Mwau was later informed by the CID that they had carried out investigations and established that his name and ID including his date of birth had been registered as an M-Pesa transactor under the telephone number 254722752944.
Mr Mwau said he neither owns the cellphone line nor knows the owner. Mr Mwau is the key prosecution witness lined up to testify in the case.