At the Milimani Law Courts, a Chief Magistrate has denied the state’s plea to detain cybersecurity consultant and university dropout Seth Mwabe Okwanyo for 20 days over allegations of siphoning KSh 11.4 million from Afrisend Money Transfer Ltd.
Okwanyo, 26, was arrested on August 30, 2025, at his Tatu City apartment and faces charges of unauthorized access and theft under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. The case, listed as Miscellaneous Criminal Application No. 26 of 2025, pits the Republic – represented by the Banking Fraud Investigation Unit against Okwanyo, in what has quickly become one of Kenya’s most closely watched cybercrime cases.
According to Afrisend, the company reported a sophisticated breach on July 16, 2025, involving 38 fraudulent transactions that drained KSh 11,410,165 via a Diamond Trust Bank account through the Pesalink platform. Investigating Officer CI Julius Cheruiyot, in an affidavit, accused Okwanyo of being “heavily involved” in the transactions, alleging he provided a fraudulent Telegram bot application link used to siphon funds.
Prosecutors had urged the court to detain Okwanyo for 20 days to allow forensic analysis of seized electronics, cooperation with international entities like Telegram and Starlink, collection of financial records, and interviews with industry stakeholders. They also expressed fears of possible interference with witnesses and destruction of evidence.
But in a strongly worded ruling, the court dismissed the request. “I’ve considered the application seeking to have the suspect detained for 20 days as deposed in the affidavit. Having considered the same, I find that the application is not merited in terms of denying the respondent his liberty. It is evident that the suspect has no control of what the Investigating Officer elucidated as part of his investigation,” the magistrate ruled.
The court further rejected the prosecution’s attempt to access Okwanyo’s bank and M-PESA records, noting he was not a flight risk. Instead, the magistrate released him on a KSh 1 million bond with one surety of a similar amount, or a KSh 500,000 cash bail, on condition that he provides three contact persons and reports to the Investigating Officer once every week until the case is mentioned again.
In his defense, Okwanyo insisted the transactions were the unintended result of testing a software program he had developed. “I was only testing a program I created. I never intended to steal from anyone. I was shocked when the money appeared in my account,” he told the court.
As the case proceeds, authorities face the challenge of unraveling the intricacies of the alleged digital fraud, which many believe could set a precedent for how courts handle complex cybercrime cases in the future.
