A man has pleaded guilty to charges of orchestrating a fraudulent SIM swap scheme that targeted former Central OCS Samson Talaam in which the public was swindled of their money.
Dennis Masavi Musyimi pleaded guilty to three counts of fraudulently replacing Taalam's phone number and soliciting cash from the public.
The phone was at the time in the custody of the Independent Police Oversight Authority, which was at the time investigating Taalam over the death of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang while in a police cell.
Musyimi pleaded guilty to willfully procuring the replacement of the SIM card belonging to Talaam by falsely pretending to be the rightful owner.
The court was told that the illegally obtained line was later used to solicit money from the public for his personal gain. The offence was committed between June 16 and June 19 this year.
Musyimi was charged alongside Amos Nzomo Kimanzi and James Mutemi Munyithya, both of whom denied the charges and were set to face a full trial.
The three jointly faced a count of computer fraud contrary to Section 26(1) of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act No. 5 of 2018, for allegedly conspiring to commit the offence.
In addition to the joint charge, Munyithya faced a separate count of unlawful use of an identity card belonging to another person.
The court heard that he fraudulently used Kimanzi’s national identity, which investigators linked to the processing of SIM swaps.
Kimanzi, on his part, was charged with permitting another person to use his identity card with the intent to deceive, contrary to Section 14(j)(i) of the Registration of Persons Act.
The prosecution said Kimanzi knowingly allowed Munyithya to use his ID card, thereby aiding the fraudulent registration of the SIM card used in the scheme.
Musyimi also faced an additional charge of obtaining registration by false pretence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code, having impersonated Kiprotich in order to fraudulently procure the SIM swap.
The prosecution told the court that the three were part of a wider syndicate engaged in SIM swap fraud and identity theft.
Investigations are still underway to trace other accomplices believed to be on the run.
The prosecution will present Musyimi’s facts for sentencing on Wednesday, while Kimanzi and Munyithya will proceed for pre-trial directions following their pleas of not guilty.
