Eight petitioners have sued the Inspector General of Police, the Ministry of Interior, and the Attorney General, seeking compensation of Ksh 40,000 in cash bail allegedly vanished from the Shauri Moyo Police Station Pay Bill system.
Through their lawyer, Lempaa Suyianka, the petitioners argue that in the year 2016 they were arrested and detained at Shauri Moyo Police Station where the police ordered them to secure their release by paying Ksh 5,000 each.
They allege that the same money was paid through a Safaricom pay bill number.
However, Safaricom has distanced itself from the missing funds, asserting that it only facilitates mobile payments and does not control or manage funds held in Pay Bill accounts.
In an affidavit, Stella Kichoi, a senior officer in Safaricom’s Lipa na M-Pesa operations, stated that the disputed funds were deposited into a Pay Bill account owned by the National Police Service.
She proceeds to say that Safaricom does not control or initiate transactions unless formally instructed by the account owner.
According to the petitioners, they paid a total of Ksh 40,000 as cash bail through the police Pay Bill account.
However, when they attempted to convert it into cash bail after they were arraigned in Court, the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) reportedly informed them that the process was impossible due to an alleged failure in the M-Pesa system.
Unable to retrieve their money, they were forced to secure alternative funds for their release.
Following their acquittal, they requested a refund, only to be told that the account had been “frozen”, and their money was inaccessible.
