Suspected cybercrime mastermind freed on bond

A suspected member of a cybercrime syndicate charged with siphoning over Sh100 million from company’s bank accounts and a lender has been admitted to bond after staying in custody for 21 days.

Albert Komen Kipkechem alias Jonathan Kiptum Barmasai was granted a bond of Sh5 million with one surety of similar amounts until April 1,2026 when a trial date will be allocated.

The magistrate disallowed the prosecutions objections to the accused being admitted to bail on grounds that he is a flight risk.

The suspect reportedly has eight national identity cards and a Congolese passport.

While releasing Mr Kipkechem, the magistrate warned him against interfering with witnesses, otherwise he will face serious legal sanctions.

“Besides the current Sh96.6million cyber fraud matters police are also investigating his alleged elaborate fraudulent schemes that has financial institutions losing Sh100million,” the magistrate heard.

The court was told police are at the tail end of finalising the elaborate investigations which will yield to several court cases against the suspect and his accomplices.

Mr Kipkechem faces two counts of irregularly accessing the computer system Eclecities International, and computer fraud.

The director of public prosecutions, through prosecuting counsel Joyce Olajo, told the court that between June 6 and 20,2025, he fraudulently occasioned an unlawful financial loss Sh52,549,798 to Eclecities International through unauthorised access to their computer system.

He is also accused of infringing security measures of Craft Silicon, leading to a loss of Sh44,160,649.

He denied the two counts then applied to be admitted to bail.

A team of five defense lawyers pleaded for his release on bond saying “the mere fact that he was found with eight Kenyan national identity cards does not make him a flight risk”.

The lawyers said the prosecution has not presented any compelling evidence to warrant Kipkechem being denied bond,

However, the prosecution came out guns blazing telling the senior principal magistrate that “companies and financial institutions have lost colossal sums to hackers”.

Opposing the grant of bond the prosecutor said the accused has two passports- a Kenyan and a DR Congolese, which makes it easy for him to slip through the East African border posts with ease.

The prosecutor said there are enough compelling reasons to deny the accused bond in that he has eight Kenyan identity cards, all bearing his Photo but with different names.

“The accused person faces criminal charges of irregulary access to computer systems of a private company contrary to section 15 (1) and 26 (1) (b) as read with section 26 (2) (a) of the computer misuse and cybercrimes Act Cap which attracts a harsh penalty,” prosecuting counsel Olajo told the magistrate.

'Flight risk'

She added: “Although the accused is a Kenyan citizen, he is also a holder of Democratic Republic Congo passport making him a significant flight risk.”

Pressing for bail denial the prosecutor said Mr Kipkechem is “implicated in a series of cyber-attacks resulting in massive financial losses to financial institutions totaling to over Sh100m.”

The court further heard the accused has proven that he has the capacity to travel or conduct financial transactions under aliases.

“That this discovery corroborates the prosecutions fear that the accused is a high-level flight-risk who would use these illicit documents to flee the jurisdiction of the court and evade reach by law enforcers,” stated Ms Olajo.

The investigating officer Chief Inspector Andrew Ngowa had presented an affidavit in opposition to the accused being admitted to bail.

Mr Ngowa, attached to the economic and commercial crimes unit at the directorate of criminal investigations, who swore the affidavit opposing grant of bond said the “accused may abscond without trace given the numerous identification documents in his possession.”

The magistrate ordered the case to be mentioned on April 1,2026 for pre-trial directions.

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