A Nairobi court has charged Tony Munyoki heavily after he refused to reverse Ksh 140,000 sent to him by mistake.
The Magistrate Court charged Tony Munyoki with computer misuse under the Computer and Cybercrime Act of 2018 for deliberately withholding Ksh140,000 that had been mistakenly sent to him by Muhumed Abdikadir.
On December 25, Abdikadir accidentally missed a couple of digits while making a transaction through Mpesa.
He stated that he intended to send the money to someone else as payment for work done through his Equity Bank account.
For two consecutive days he tried to contact Munyoki but he was unsuccessful as Munyoki decided to switch off his phone.
Abdikadir was compelled to report the matter to the authorities. Detectives who took over the case arrested the man at his hardware store in Kajiado days before he was arraigned.
Munyoki however denied all the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Mary Njagi at the Makadara Law Courts. He was released on a bond Sh100,000 without an option of cash bail.
The case will be mentioned on March 28th before the hearing slated for June 22, 2023.
According to the Cybercrime Act 2018, it is illegal to refuse to reverse money sent to a person by mistake.
The Computer and Cyber Crimes Act, 2018 provides that Failing to reverse an M-Pesa transaction done by mistake will see Kenyans pay a Sh200,000 fine or be jailed for two years, or both.
