Customers at a Fina Bank branch in Nairobi. Obadia Gichana, Robert Moseti Onkwani and Ms Moraa Gichana are accused of stealing Sh96.7 million and Sh9 million from Fina Bank and Ecobank on November 12. File
Three more people have been charged over the more than Sh200 million allegedly stolen from two local banks.
Obadia Gichana, Robert Moseti Onkwani and Ms Moraa Gichana are accused of stealing Sh96.7 million and Sh9 million from Fina Bank and Ecobank on November 12.
The suspects, denied the charges and Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei granted Obadia Gichana and Moraa Gichana Sh1 million cash bail while Onkwani was given Sh500,000.
They joined Don Bosco Ooga Gichana, Graham Rioba Sagwe and a Nairobi lawyer Albert Simiyu Kuloba who denied the charges last week. Sagwe and Don Bosco were each released on Sh2 million while Simiyu is out on Sh300,000 cash bail.
According to the prosecution, Sh96,759,540 was stolen at Fina Bank’s Ngong Road branch and a similar amount from Eco-Bank Towers. Sagwe and Don Bosco are charged with the theft at Fina Bank while Obadia and Moraa are accused of stealing from Ecobank. Sagwe and Don Bosco face another count of conspiring to defraud Garden Real Estate Development of a similar amount.
Confidential report
Bosco is also accused of stealing another Sh8 million belonging to Fina Bank at the Barclays Bank’s Westlands branch while Simiyu allegedly stole Sh10 million from Fina Bank.
Moseti allegedly stole Sh9 million from Fina Bank at the Barclays Bank’s Development House branch.
The court allowed an application by the prosecution to have the accused report to Parklands Police Station to assist with the investigation. Hearing is set for January 4. The Sh200 million bank heist comes in the wake of revelations that banking fraud more than tripled in the third quarter of 2010, to Sh1.7 billion, with the country’s banking system emerging as a stealing ground for staff.
A confidential report by the Banking Fraud Investigations Department (BFID) says with most fraud not being reported, the rising banking crime being investigated is a direct result of the lack of action by banks to correct the problem.
BFID last month revealed Sh390 million worth of reported frauds within Kenya’s banks from April to June this year, up Sh20 million on the previous quarter. But figures for the third quarter show fraud during the 12 weeks from July to September this year, up at Sh1.7 billion. The anti-fraud unit has recovered close to a billion of the quarter three losses.
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