A house help in Westlands Nairobi has been accused of stealing Ksh 170,000 from her employer's mobile phone.
Cecilia Buhasio allegedly committed the offence at her employer’s residence in Hill Crescent Estate. She denied the charges in court.
Buhasion is alleged to have transferred the money in three transactions of Ksh 140,000, Ksh 20,000 and Ksh 10,000, after which she fled to her home village in Kakamega County, where she was arrested.
She is also accused of stealing 2 blackberry phones and an iPhone valued at Ksh 150,000.
The employer reported the matter at the Railways Police Station after she received an alert message from her bank informing her of the said transaction.
Police stated that efforts to reach the suspect through her phone were unsuccessful prompting the complainant to rush home only to find one of her phones as well as the suspect missing.
Officers investigating the case reportedly recovered the stolen items at Shamakhikho area, Kakamega County, where they had tracked the suspect.
Cecilia was arraigned in court on Monday, February 1, where she denied the theft charges. She was released on a cash bail of Ksh 80,000.
This comes at a time when the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is in the process of reinforcing mobile money processes in an effort to guarantee the safety of billions of shillings transacted through digital services.
The extension of State Services to the digital space, according to Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, is as a result of escalated risks of fraud and cyber crime.
“Disruption of mobile services due to infrastructural challenges or cybercrime and fraud could lead to significant loss of potential Government revenue, customer deposits and market confidence. The Government might therefore be under pressure to compensate losses," The CS stated in the 2021 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) draft.
