Two female employees were on Wednesday arraigned in Kiambu over the theft of Sh15.6 million from Goshens Real Estate company located in Ruaka township, Kiambu County.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) sleuths from Kiambaa say the huge amount was stolen in 18 months by suspects, Judy Muringe Mugo, 41, and Catherine Waithera Ruiru, 26.
Muringe is the Goshen Real Estate Marketing Officer and Waithera is the receptionist and they are facing charges of conspiring to steal the staggering amount from their employer.
Company Director Andrew Kirumba filed a report at the DCI offices, Kiambaa on January 23 accusing Muringe of duping tenants into remitting their monthly rents to a company mobile phone line instead of Paybill and bank account details provided in their lease agreements.
DCI revealed in court that, Muringe who was tasked with liaising with tenants and issuing them receipts, asked them to channel all rent payments to the Goshen line she possessed.
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She is then said to have moved the hundreds of thousands of cash received from tenants in rent and water bills to her two personal lines then to her two bank accounts at Family Bank.
According to DCI, the 41-year-old then concealed her tracks by colluding with Waithera, who allegedly manipulated the numbers to indicate that no tenant had any rent arrears.
For her role in the brazen theft of company funds, the 26-year-old received a share of the loot in the criminal activities reported to have happened from June, 2022 to January, 2024.
In their probe, detectives later unearthed evidence of the transactions reportedly carried out by the marketing officer through company and personal phone lines and bank accounts.
The DCI sleuths also established that Muringe also transferred Sh3,442,200 to the receptionist through her mobile number and also through her bank account at KCB.
Records show Waithera, who earns a salary of Sh30,000, bought a Toyota Harrier for Sh750,000 from Autocad Motors using some of the ill-gotten cash on April 14, 2023.
But the detective say they later found that Waithera, who was released on bail to await the completion of the probe, later transferred the vehicle to a Andronicus Mbuthia Kamakia.
DCI officers later found and impounded the Toyota Harrier to prevent its sale or use as collateral to obtain a loan by the suspect and it is being treated as a proceed of crime.
The phones owned by both suspects and the desktop computer used by the receptionist have been confiscated and submitted to the forensic cybercrime unit for detailed analysis.
