Two IT students from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been charged for allegedly stealing millions of shillings from NCBA Bank through hacking.
The two students; Antony Mwangi Ngige, 23, and Ann Wambui Nyoike, 21, were arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts on Monday to answer to charges of stealing Ksh25 million and a further attempt to steal another Ksh190.7 million from the same bank.
Both suspects are second-year students.
Appearing before Senior Resident Magistrate Carolyne Muthoni, the court was told that the offences were committed between October 20 and October 22, 2020 by the two and other who were not before court.
Investigations show that the suspects plotted and stole the Ksh25.4 million from NCBA’s Upper Hill head office.
The court was told that Ngige alerted NCBA of a system failure via social media while he went down to work together with Wambui attempting to hack the bank’s systems.
Unfortunately, the axe fell on them after Ngige was summoned to the bank to shed more light on this.
Arunda Oichoe, the lawyer to the first and second accused pleaded for a lenient bail term arguing that his clients were students.
He asked the court to release them on Ksh100,000 cash bail.
“It is the first accused (Ngige) who initiated his prosecution process by informing bank authorities that there was a hitch in its system,” the defence lawyer pleaded with the court.
His lawyer told the court that he was a whistle-blower and should not be treated as the suspect.
Both suspects were released on a cash bail of Ksh500,000 or Ksh2 million bond each.
The case will be mentioned on November 10.
