Uber Driver Charged with Personation at Nairobi Bank
"Your honor I am a single mother of two and I cannot afford the amount you have granted since I am a woman of small means," she pleaded with the court.
An Uber driver has been charged in Nairobi with personation with intent to defraud by presenting herself at the National Bank of Kenya as another person.
Emily Wanjiku Kimani, an Uber driver, appeared before the Milimani senior principal magistrate, Dolphina Alego, facing the offence of personation and having another person’s Kenyan identity card.
The court heard that on August 21, 2025, at the National Bank of Kenya, Mountain Mall Branch in Nairobi, within Nairobi county, with the intent to defraud, falsely presented herself as Naomi Mueni Kithuka to Wilkister Ziyeri, a sales executive at the said bank.
In the second count, she was charged with having an identity card belonging to Naomi Mueni Kithuka, purported to be her own identity card issued by the Principal Registrar of the National Registration Bureau.
She appeared before the Milimani senior principal magistrate, Dolphina Alego, and denied the charges leveled by the prosecution.
Wanjiku, who did not have a lawyer, made an application for bail reduction after the magistrate had imposed a bond of Ksh 500,000 with a surety of a similar amount or alternative cash bail of Ksh. 250,000.
She prayed the magistrate to review the terms, citing that she is a single mother of two, an Uber driver who earns a meagre income,
“Your honor I am a single mother of two and I cannot afford the amount you have granted since I am a woman of small means,” she pleaded with the court.
Wanjiku told the magistrate that she received a parcel (envelope) from a customer containing some documents she did not check, get paid, and was directed to drop it at the said bank.
She added that after delivering the envelope, the bank examined it, and she was arrested and charged with the offence.
While trying to interrogate her on the sentiments, the magistrate asked her whether she knew the one who handed the parcel to her,
“Do you know the person who gave the envelope?” The magistrate inquired.
“No. I was paid as a parcel to deliver since I am an Uber driver. You do not have to know the person as a principal in our job,” she responded.
The magistrate asked for a pre-bail report on August 27, 2025, to review the bond terms she had imposed earlier.
