Fact Check: Juja University Gang Lands on Interpol Watchlist [VIDEO]

File image of a news set at NTV studios in Nairobi
NTV studio at Twin Tower along Kimathi Street.
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On Tuesday, May 19, Juja Town, in Kiambu County was one of the trending topics in the country, following a feature aired on NTV, which stated that the town was currently highlighted by Interpol as a global cybercrime hub.

However, a quick check on Interpol's official website reveals that the only Kenyan cybercrime group currently under their radar is Silent Cards.

The locally-based group is said to have morphed from the infamous Forkbombo Group which was every bank's worst nightmare back in 2016 and 2017.

It is true that cybercrime syndicates have been on the rise in Juja, but Interpol is yet to release a report on the same.

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On May 14, detectives from the Serious Crimes Unit in the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), busted two university students, Ian Kinanga and Jefferson Bosire, at their hostel in Highpoint residential area - Juja, with over 400 sim cards, 8 national ID cards, 2 laptops and 4 mobile phones.

A software developer at a local bank, who is believed to have been in cahoots with the two suspects, was also nabbed after he was found in the company of the students.

Investigating officer Constable Mohammed Amin revealed that after analysing the electronic gadgets, they found WhatsApp chats showing how they stole from unsuspecting victims and used bitcoins as their main currency to conceal their tracks.

This was just one among a list of countless cybercrimes that have been traced back to the town located in the outskirts of Nairobi.

The Communications Authority’s report for the period between July - September 2019, shows that the National Cybersecurity Centre detected 25.2-million cyber threat events.

Globally some statistics related to cybersecurity as per www.techjury.net predicted that the cost of online crime is expected to hit the Ksh600 trillion mark by 2021.

On November 20, 2019, the cybercrime was so rampant that the DCI issued a warning to Kenyans.

”We wish to caution members of the public against engaging in online transactions with companies, agencies and/or individuals they have no credible information about, to avoid,” reads an excerpt of the statement.

Agencies purporting to sell real estate properties by exaggerating demand for their products and asking for a deposit before vanishing afterwards was also listed among rampant crimes.

The educated fraudsters are also known to call unsuspecting individuals and claim to be service providers either in banking or mobile money platforms.

Juja has been on the headlines for the wrong reasons over the last several years, with the most famous incident involving a bank robbery in Thika.

The perpetrators made away with Ksh52 million without having to fire a single bullet, having dug up a 35-metre tunnel akin to the ones used by infamous Mexican drug lord El Chapo, that led them right into the bank's vault.

To date, only an estimated Ksh17 million of the loot has been recovered, after some of the culprits were nabbed with bags of cash at a house in Juja.

One of the suspects in the heist, Charles Mwangi Murakaru,  graduated from high school in 2007, scoring straight As in all subjects, and proceeded to JKUAT to study agricultural engineering.

Rewatch details the heist that stunned the nation below:

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