JKUAT Students Hack Bank: Two students at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) have been charged at Milimani Law Courts with stealing Sh. 25 million NCBA Bank through hacking. The two, Anthony Mwangi, 21, and Ann Wambui, 23, also faced another count of conspiracy to defraud the bank of Sh. 190 million.
They were accused of committing the offense on or before October 20, 2020, jointly with others not before the court.
The salary John Gachora earns as CEO of Kenyattas’ NCBA bank
The court heard that between October 20 and 22 at NCBA Bank head office in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area, the accused stole Sh. 25.4 million from the bank. Through lawyer Arunda Oichoe, the accused made an application for reasonable cash bail, saying that they are only university students.
“They are students at JKUAT and are to start their examination. Wanyoike is 21 years and Wambui is 23 years,” said Arunda. The students sought 100,000 cash bail with their lawyer telling the court that one of the accused had taken it upon himself to inform the bank that their system had loopholes that could be exploited.
“The alleged crimes happened on an IT platform, particularly a mobile phone,” said Oichoe.
It is Mwangi who informed the bank that there was a system breach through Twitter and was subsequently summoned to appear at the bank for an inquiry.
“They presented themselves before the bank and we were not arrested,” said Oichoe.
The accused denied the charges before Milimani principal magistrate Caroline Muthoni and were granted Sh. 500,000 bail each with an alternative bond of Sh. 2 million. The case has been slated for pre-trial in November. JKUAT Students Hack Bank.
