Senator Tabitha Mutinda calls for probe into rampant bank fraud in Kenya
Nominated senator Tabitha Mutinda has sought a statement from the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Budget regarding allegations of fraudulent activities involving customer accounts at various Kenyan banks.
Mutinda rose to seek the statement on Tuesday, February 22, 2023 in parliament.
She said that she had received complaints from several customers who had lost their money through fraudulent withdrawals from their accounts at different banks.
She cited cases of Marion Nyambura Karanja whose account at Equity Bank’s Gikomba Branch was wiped out of over KES 700,000, Matthew Mathia whose pension funds were used to pay for a loan fraudulently taken against his account in Equity Bank’s Limuru Branch and many similar cases in Equity Bank’s branches in Uganda.
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She asked the committee to investigate the allegations and explain the measures that have been put in place by the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of various banks, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Head of the Banking Fraud Investigations Department (BFID) to stem such activities that cast aspersions on the banks’ security systems.
She also asked the committee to outline the actions put in place, if any, by banks where similar allegations have been raised before, to ensure customers who may have lost their monies in such fraudulent activities are compensated.
Equity Bank recently became a hot topic on Twitter, with customers complaining that they were losing money in their accounts.
The bank, on the other hand, assured its customers that it had dealt with any reported instances of fraud.