Emmanuel Bwire, a third year student of Kenyatta University has been arraigned in court for buying food and drinks worth Ksh. 189,000 from a Nairobi hotel using fake MPESA messages. Bwire was arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts over the alleged offences said to have been committed between 13th and 16th December at Hill Park Hotel in Nairobi.
According to the prosecution, Bwire used fake MPESA transaction codes to order drinks worth Ksh. 28,100 and paid Ksh. 2,000 for delivery fees. Upon ordering the drinks, he asked for the hotel’s till number to pay the bill using MPESA. He then wrote down the MPESA transaction code and handed it to the hotel waiter. He later made another order of drinks and food worth Ksh. 47,000, which he claimed to have paid through MPESA and provided the transaction code. On the third day, he ordered drinks, food and transport worth Ksh. 51,600 and gave the MPESA transaction code to the hotel delivery guy as usual.
However, the hotel messenger requested to take a photo of the message, which he did. All this time, the hotel delivery person had not received MPESA transaction messages because of their faulty MPESA line. However, upon reaching the hotel to countercheck the MPESA transactions, the messenger was shocked to find that no money has been paid, and that Bwire had given them fake MPESA transaction messages.
Bwire later called the hotel for the fourth time and requested food and drinks worth Ksh. 61,000. This time around, the hotel messenger was accompanied by a police officer to the student’s residence. He gave a fake transaction code, unaware of the staged delivery. During the court hearing, Bwire accused the court of going against his constitutional rights as they had held him for more than 24 hours without charging him. The accused pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Micheni and was released on a cash bail of Ksh. 50,000.