Four men have been charged with hacking into the SIM card of former Central Police Station OCS Samson Talaam, which they then used to swindle money from unsuspecting members of the public.
Brian Ronoh Kiprotich, Amos Nzomo Kimanzi, James Mutemi Munyithya, and Dennis Masavi Musyimi were charged with 13 offences, including conspiracy to commit a felony, computer fraud, identity theft, unlawful possession of an identity card, intent to deceive, and obtaining registration by false pretences.
Magistrate Geoffrey Onsaringo of the Milimani Law Courts heard that the four had allegedly accessed Talaam's mobile phone number while he was in prison custody for the murder of teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang.
Talaam is charged alongside five other suspects with the brutal murder of Ojwang, who had been held in custody at the Central Police Station for allegedly defaming a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Eliud Langat on social media.
DIG Langat had filed a complaint against Ojwang, who was arrested at his home in Homa Bay County and taken to Nairobi on June 7, 2025.
Mr Ojwang was killed in his cell at the Central Police Station on the night of June 7, 2025.
While Talaam was in custody, the court heard that his phone had been hacked and his number had been used to solicit money from unsuspecting members of the public.
The four denied conspiring to fraudulently replace the SIM card number without his consent around June 16-19, 2025.
The charge further claims that the four allegedly used the phone to ask members of the public for money.
Mr Kiprotich is facing eight counts of theft of an identity card, which he used to withdraw money from an M-Pesa account that required a password.
He was charged with being in possession of identity cards belonging to Elisha Siele, Mwinzi Mulango, Stephen Wambua Muthengi, Nzuva Musila, Geoffrey Kipkoech Rono, Nicholas Ouma and Patrick Agesa Muhonja.
Munyithya denied being in possession of an identity card belonging to Amos Nzomo Kimanzi, which he allegedly used to register the SIM card number 0112011882 and activate a MobiGo mobile phone with the serial number 5121004788.
Amos Nzomo Kimanzi was separately charged with illegally possessing a national identity card belonging to James Mutemi Munyithya, which was used for the same purpose.
Masavi was charged with registering the SIM card replacement for the former OCS at the Central Police Station, Mr Talaam, on June 16, 2025, while pretending to be the detained officer.
Each of the accused was released on a Sh500,000 bond with two sureties of the same amount, or an alternative cash bail of Sh200,000 with one contact person.
