Nairobi businessman charged with stealing Ksh.1.3M from client

A Nairobi-based businessman has been charged with stealing Ksh.1.3 million from a client which he claimed he was going to use to clear a shipment from India.

Samuel Mwendwa Mutua pleaded not guilty to receiving the said cash on March 5, 2021, at an undisclosed location within Nairobi.

He was also charged with forging the signature of one Kivati Musila on January 27, 2022, and purporting it to be genuine all with the intent to defraud.

Mutua was also indicted for uttering a false document at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu Road on February 16, 2022.

According to the prosecution, Mutua knowingly and fraudulently uttered a forged affidavit to a police officer; Paul Tonui, while purporting it to be genuine and signed by Musila.

Mutua, while asking to be released on a cash bail, told the court that he would like to have the matter settled out of court saying that he had already engaged the complainant.

The complainant however denied Mutua's claims noting that the accused had been playing a game of cat and mouse with him for over two years now.

“I have engaged his business partners and his wife to no avail. By the time we reported the matter to DCI , it was because we had exhausted all avenues. Early this year, my wife bumped into him in the supermarket and asked him when he intended to pay the money but he rudely told her his life would not stop because he owed us money,” the complainant told the court.

Chief Magistrate Onyina released Mutua on a cash bail of Ksh.200,000 or a bond of Ksh.300,000 with a surety of similar amount.

The case will be mentioned on March 23, 2023.