How Lost ID Card Landed Kisumu Man in Violent Robbery Case

A small-scale farmer in Kisumu is facing severe legal trouble after thieves used his lost national identity card to register a SIM card and commit crimes. 

Tobias Onyango Aiko has been charged with stealing a mobile phone valued at Sh19,000 and advancing Sh452,000 from the M-Pesa and bank account of a robbery victim. The robbery occurred in Nairobi on May 4th when Elizabeth Makotsi was attacked by three women and two men who stole her handbag containing her phone. The thieves were armed with crude weapons and fled the scene on two standby motorcycles. 

Upon reporting the occurrence to the Eastleigh police station and the consequent investigation launched by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), within hours Makotsi was informed that Sh452,000 had been transferred from her accounts to several phone numbers. Potential legal implications for Aiko include being sentenced to life imprisonment.

An investigation done by the DCI uncovered that a SIM card registered under Mr Aiko's ID card had been the recipient of some of the funds transferred from Ms Makotsi's accounts. The DCI agents intercepted him in Kisumu and urged the area chief to summon him to her office. He was later transferred to Ruaraka police station in Nairobi where he was detained pending further investigation.

Mr Aiko pleaded not guilty to the charges before Principal Magistrate Irene Mwangi, saying that he had only visited Nairobi once in 1988 to see his brother and did not know where Eastleigh was. He also claimed that he had lost his national ID in 2017 and replaced it the following year and has no connection to the SIM cards that received the cash from Ms Makotsi's accounts. However, Mr Aiko failed to report the loss of his ID card to the police before it was used to register the SIM cards that were later used for criminal activities.

Mr Aiko was not charged due to lack of evidence tying him to the crime scene. He was released on a bond of Sh100,000 and a surety of the same amount and an alternative cash bail of Sh50,000. The case will be mentioned on August 31st and the hearing is slated for October 11th.