Ruaraka woman accused of transferring Sh120,000 from friend's M-Pesa account

A woman is battling theft charges at the Makadara Law courts in Nairobi after she reportedly transferred Sh120,000 from a friend’s M-Pesa account.

Violet Nyakera was charged with stealing the money from Daniel Itemo in Ruaraka, Nairobi, on October 14 in contravention of section 268 (1) as read with section 275 of the Penal Code.

Requested for Sh80

Mr Itemo met the accused person in the area and she requested him to give her Sh80 to pay her daily installments for her mobile phone which she had acquired on hire purchase.

The phone had since been switched off by the operator after she defaulted on the daily payments.

The complainant gave her the money and allowed her to use his phone to make the payment.

Later, Ms Nyakeraka borrowed Mr Itemo’s phone to make a call.

She is accused of taking advantage of that moment to transfer the cash to herself.

Making payments 

Itemo discovered the following day that the money had been stolen while making some payments.

He called Safaricom Limited, the service provider, in search of answers and was instead directed to report to police and seek help which he did.

Recovered Sh1000

After investigations, police recovered Sh1000. 
The rest had been withdrawn from the suspect’s M-Pesa account.

Ms Nyakeraka denied the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Mary Njagi and pleaded for lenient bail terms.

But prosecution counsel Adeline Rongito urged the court to consider the amount allegedly stolen from the complainant and the circumstances around the alleged theft.

Ms Njagi released the accused person on a cash bail of Sh100, 000. 
She is required to provide a contact person who will ensure that she attends court for trial.

Hearing of the case will start on February 22, 2023.

Two witnesses

There are only two witnesses in the case including Itemo and the police officer who investigated the case.