Two JKUAT Students Charged for Hacking NCBA Bank, Stealing Sh25.4 Million

Two students at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) were on Monday arraigned in court for allegedly hacking a local bank and stealing millions of shillings.

The two, Anthony Mwangi Ngige (23) and Ann Wambui Nyoike (21), appeared at Milimani Law Courts where they were charged with stealing Sh25 million from NCBA Bank through hacking. They faced a second count of conspiracy to defraud the same bank of Sh190 million.

The charge sheet read that the two second-year Information Technology (IT) students committed the offense between October 20th and October 22nd, 2020, together with others not before the court.

The court heard that the accused conspired to steal Sh25,400,000 from NCBA Upper Hill’s head office but they pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Their lawyer Arunda Oichoe pleaded with the court to grant the two reasonable cash bail of Sh100,000 each, arguing that they are only university students.

“They are students at JKUAT and are to start their examination. Wanyoike is 23 years and Wambui is 21 years,” said Arunda.

The lawyer further noted that one of his clients took it upon himself to inform the lender via Twitter that their system had loopholes that could be exploited by criminals.

“It is the first accused (Ngige) who initiated his prosecution process by informing bank authorities that there was a hitch in its system,” said Arunda, adding that Ngige is a whistleblower who has now been turned into a suspect.

He added that Ngige sent NCBA Bank an SMS after it failed to respond urgently to his tweet. The bank’s management summoned him last Saturday and asked him to report again on Monday (October 26th) but he was arrested alongside Ms. Nyoike and taken to court.

Senior resident magistrate Carolyne Muthoni Njagi released the two on a Sh500,000 cash bail or bond of Sh2 million each. The matter will be mentioned virtually on November 10th, 2020.