Car register suspects ‘got confidential State data’

Three suspects charged with manipulating the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) car registration database have been detained for three more days as investigations continue.

Kiambu Chief Magistrate Patricia Gichohi directed that Michael Onyango Odol, Sylvester Onyango, and Anthony Rugut be held at Muthaiga Police Station up to February 27 when she will rule on whether they should be released on bond or cash bail.

The three were arrested on Friday in Nairobi’s Ngara over allegation of manipulating the NTSA database but defence team fought for their release on bail, saying the suspects had cooperated with police.

The investigators, however, pushed for a ten-day detention of the suspects, saying they had also accessed confidential data from Kenya Revenue Authority and other international organisations operating in Nairobi.

Charles Mwita, lead detective in the case, told the court that releasing the suspects on cash bail or bond would be risky since the trio had accessed data that was a threat to national security.

“Preliminary analysis of the data stored in the suspect’s computers already recovered established that they had also hacked the KRA system and the extent of the damage is yet to be fully established,” the detective told the court.

“…the suspects are in possession of very confidential data from other government agencies which could negatively impact on national security, and there is proof the suspects had unauthorised access to other international organisations,” the court heard.

Earlier, Mr Mwita told the court that police had impounded 50 vehicles fraudulently registered by Mr Michael Onyango and Mr Sylvester Onyango who were aided by Mr Rugut.

During the raid on February 21, police said, they recovered Sh1.2 million from the suspects, compressor machine for painting number plates, a complete number plate, five desktop computers, laptops, logbooks, modems, hard drives and flash drives.