Samuel Ngungi Hlutwa, the grandson of Lesotho’s Minister for Law and Justice, is now a free man after police released him and designated him a witness in a mobile money fraud case.
Instead of being arraigned to answer charges of obtaining money by false pretence and mobile money fraud, Mr Hlutwa will now only be required to testify once a 30-year-old woman suspected of committing the offence is arrested and formally charged.
Police had initially suspected that he may have colluded with the woman, who is on the run, prompting his detention and a miscellaneous application that allowed investigators to hold him for seven days.
However, fresh developments led detectives to review the evidence and release him after concluding that he was not a principal suspect but a person of interest whose cooperation could help trace the woman believed to be behind the fraud.
Mr Hlutwa, 22, had been held at Athi River Police Station for slightly over a week after detectives linked a mobile phone in his possession to a Sh60,000 mobile money fraud complaint reported on January 17.
Athi River Police Station in Machakos County, pictured on January 20, 2026.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
The case was reported by a woman who told police she had been duped after receiving a call from an unknown person.
Moments after the call, the money disappeared from her mobile phone.
Detectives traced the phone number used in the alleged scam and established that the line was registered to a 30-year-old woman believed to be his girlfriend.
Further investigations using the phone’s IMEI number revealed that the handset had changed hands and was being used by Hlutwa, leading to his arrest as police sought to establish his role in the matter.
His father is Kenyan but settled in Lesotho, where he married a Mosotho woman. Born in Lesotho, Mr Hlutwa travelled to Kenya in 2022 to pursue an aviation course.
Confusion initially surrounded his whereabouts, with several police units, including the Diplomatic Police Unit, indicating they had no report of a missing foreign national.
Mr Kandie confirmed that Hlutwa had been arrested but booked as a Kenyan national after failing to present identification documents at the time of arrest.
“When he was booked, he did not identify himself as a foreigner. He had no ID card or passport and was recorded simply as Samuel Ngungi,” Mr Kandie said.
With his release, investigators have now shifted their focus entirely to tracking down the woman suspected of orchestrating the mobile money fraud, whose arrest will determine the next steps in the case.
