Bank Manager on Trial for Defrauding 80-Year-Old Widow of Ksh 150M Property
By the time of the offence, Mugweru was working as a credit manager at Faulu Microfinance Bank, where his role included approving loans.
Former Faulu Microfinance Bank Credit Manager Amos Mugweru Mwangi has stood on his defence in a case where he is charged with conspiracy to defraud an 80-year-old widow of her property worth Ksh 150 million.
By the time of the offence, Mugweru was working as a credit manager at Faulu Microfinance Bank, where his role included approving loans.
He is alleged to have colluded with his colleagues in the Bank, Peter Kefa Onsongo and Tom Jaseme, to defraud Alice Wanjiru Wamwea of her property, LR NO 209/11315, in Huruma, which was valued at Ksh 150 million, by fraudulent auction.
Separately, Mugweru was charged with stealing Ksh 22 million from the property of Alice Wanjiru Wamwea.
On diverse dates between August 8, 2014, and April 11, 2015, at Faulu Bank head office in Nairobi county, jointly with others who were not in court, Mugweru stole Ksh 22,000,000, the property of Alice Wanjiru Wamwea.
The three Faulu Bank officials were charged alongside trader Paul Njuki, businesswoman Esther Muthoni Maina, and auctioneer Robert Wamwere Maina.
They were further charged with the offence of stealing contrary to section 275 of the penal code.
Muthoni faced a separate charge of forgery. She is said to have forged Wamwea’s signature on the Faulu Bank Loan application form, purporting it to be the complainant’s genuine signature.
In her testimony, the widow told the court that she borrowed Ksh 52 million from Faulu Bank to develop the property by building rental houses. The money was disbursed in two separate payments at a rate of 12% per annum over 54 months.
She put the title of the property as security for the loan and signed the relevant documents for the loan request.
According to her statement, she requested the bank statements since she had been paying the loan, but she was never given them.
“I was paying the loan as per the agreement but when I requested for the bank statements they never produced not even one, at the juncture I sensed something was wrong,” read her statement.
She proceeded to the Co-operative Bank seeking a loan to offset the one in Faulu.
She was given an offer by the Co-operative Bank, which she signed on June 4, 2018, for the Bank to undertake and pay the loan at Faulu on her behalf.
Despite the loan clearance by Co-operative Bank, Faulu refused to release the statements and documents, including a copy of the title deed, to them. Instead, they cleared the holding account with Ksh 58,952,900, which was contrary to the letter of offer dated May 9, 2015.
Faulu Bank auctioned the property at Ksh 85 million, alleging that Wamwea failed to settle a loan of Ksh 65 million.
Wamwea claims that she did not take a loan of Ksh 65 million, but this is the total amount she paid to the Bank.
The court adjourned the matter before Mugweru was done and scheduled the defence to proceed from October 7, 8, and 9, 2025.
