Man arrested for spending KSh6.7m paid into his bank account by mistake

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Detectives have arrested a man accused of spending more than KSh6.7 million that a company paid into his bank account by mistake, in a case the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) is using to warn the public that money credited in error must be returned.

In a statement posted on X on Sunday, the DCI said officers from its Banking Fraud Investigation Unit arrested Dickson Yiaile Sitei on Saturday, October 24, on Lantana Road in Westlands, Nairobi. He was in custody awaiting arraignment.

A KSh72,000 rent payment that grew

According to the DCI, the money reached Mr Sitei on November 18, 2025, when a company was processing 74 electronic payments. One of them was a genuine rent payment of KSh72,000 owed to him for the company’s shop in Suswa.

An error during processing sent both the rent and KSh6,744,354 meant for another company into his account. The DCI said that when the company tried to recover the money, Mr Sitei “allegedly spent the excess cash with no remorse.” The statement does not name the company, the intended recipient or the bank involved.

The arrest came almost 11 months after the payment. Investigators forwarded the file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which reviewed it and directed that he be charged with two offences.

The charges

The first is intentional withholding of an erroneously delivered payment under Section 35 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. The section says a person who “intentionally hides or detains any electronic mail, message, electronic payment, credit and debit card which was found by the person or delivered to the person in error and which ought to be delivered to another person, commits an offence.” On conviction, the penalty is a fine not exceeding KSh200,000, a jail term of up to two years, or both.

The second charge is money laundering under Section 3(b)(1), read with Section 16(1)(a), of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act.

The cybercrimes law also gives courts other tools in such cases. Section 44 allows a court to order the confiscation or forfeiture of money, property and assets bought or obtained with proceeds of an offence under the Act. Section 45 lets a court that convicts a person order them to pay compensation for any loss caused by the offence, and that order can be recovered as a civil debt.

Mr Sitei has not yet taken a plea, and the allegations have not been tested in court.

DCI warning

The DCI used the case to caution account holders. “The DCI warns that money mistakenly credited to your account does not become yours simply because it is within your reach. The law demands its return, and those who deliberately withhold and spend such funds will face the full force of the law,” the statement said.

For businesses, the case shows how one processing slip in a batch of payments can take months to resolve when the receiving party does not cooperate. The company in this case processed 74 payments in a single run, and the error went to a landlord with an existing payment relationship with it.

In a separate case this month, an Equity Bank employee was charged over duplicated Finacle profiles in an alleged theft plot.